Dev.Colts 2 North Village 3 A 90th-minute strike by Kentoine Jennings gave North Village victory in the first leg of the Dudley Eve Trophy final, while leaving Devonshire Colts a steep climb in order to successfully defend the title.

In a scrappy, but intriguing match, Village were able to do just enough to defeat Colts, who displayed great heart in the face of having to play a man short for most of the match due to the late first-half ejection of Dennis Zuill.

Village kept Colts pinned in their half for much of the last period, leaving the latter to rely solely on counter-attacks, but looked like failing to convert such dominance into goals, until Jennings popped up to score the ugliest of goals, having a right-side free-kick deflect off of his left shin, and somehow find its way underneath goalkeeper Kevin Bean.

The match started as a mad adrenalin rush, with the Red Devils' `Jennings Posse' combining to open the scoring mere seconds into the match.

A free-kick awarded on the right side was floated to the far post by Kevin Jennings, and met by Kentoine Jennings, who headed the ball back across goal for a sliding Jemeiko Jennings to knock home.

But if Village thought this would be the start of something grand they were mistaken, as they soon discovered their opponents had an attacking ability of their own.

For it took Colts just four minutes to respond, much as a result of sloppy 'keeping by Zane Hendrickson, who dropped a left-wing cross by Sullivan Phillips into the path of Aljame Zuill, leaving the striker to tap in the simplest of chances.

Spurred by the score, Colts continued to march forward, pressuring the Village defence into hasty clearances, forcing them out of their trademark possession game.

The tactic paid off in the 35th minute, as Phillips was in the right spot to clean up the debris left by a 40-yard missile from Damon Ming, that Hendrickson could only block into the path of the lean giant, who blasted home from four yards.

However, the joy of a lead was tempered minutes before the interval, as Dennis Zuill was given his marching orders by referee Lyndon Raynor for a second bookable offence -- a ruthless hack at the diminutive Jemeiko Jennings.

Village came out for the second-half rejuvenated, finally able to unveil their short passing game to positive effect and control the tempo.

Out of nowhere came the equaliser in the 68th minute -- a carbon copy of that by Phillips, as Kevin Jennings unleashed a thunderbolt from near the halfway line that Bean could only parry, setting up Dwight Warren to ram the ball over the line.

Village continued to attack, but just as it appeared Colts had weathered the storm, there appeared Kentoine Jennings on a rare forward foray from his centre-back position to notch the winner.

Devonshire Colts: K.Bean; Jermel Belboda, S.Burgess, N.Samuels, Jermaine Belboda; D.Zuill, K.Burchall, V.Ball (Q.Aberdeen 80 mins); D.Ming, A.Zuill (C.Durham 69 mins), S.Phillips (M.Belboda 60 mins).

North Village: Z.Hendrickson; J.Thomas (J.Boyles 72 mins), Kentoine Jennings, K.Dill, R.Spence; M.Hansey, Jameiko Jennings (N.Robinson 45 mins); Kevin Jennings, V.Tankard (T.Outerbridge 60 mins), D.Warren.

Referee: Lyndon Raynor.

Men of the Match: Shannon Burgess (Devonshire Colts); Kevin Jennings (North Village).

Yellow cards: Dennis Zuill, Marvin Belboda (Devonshire Colts); Kofi Dill, Randy Spence (North Village).

Red card: Dennis Zuill.

Kentoine Jennings: late winner.