Flanagan’s Onions 4

Devonshire Cougars 2

Keston Lewis scored a first-half hat-trick as Flanagan’s Onions put a dent in Devonshire Cougars’ title aspirations at Goose Gosling Field last night.

The Onions striker took full advantage of some poor Cougars defending to give his side a lead they never looked like losing.

Cougars, meanwhile, were simply unable to compete with their more physical opponents and even though they scored twice in the second half, through Machi Battersbee and Dominique Williams, the damage had already been done.

Vincent Minors bagged a fourth as the game drew to a close and Onions, who started the day third from bottom, have put some space between themselves and the rest, if only for a matter of hours.

Ultimately, the difference between the teams was the energy and organisation that Onions showed from start to finish, and the constant pressure that they put the Cougars players under was too much for the second-placed team to handle.

Lewis grabbed his first goal after just seven minutes when Kioshi Trott, the Cougars goalkeeper, played a poor pass out of his area to Drewonde Bascome, who lost the ball to Darren Thompson, and his pass left Lewis with little to do but fire the ball into the Cougars net.

The Onions striker doubled his side’s lead in the fifteenth minute when a long ball from Markez Laws caught the Cougars defence napping, Lewis rounded the hapless Trott and rolled the ball into the goal.

It took Cougars until ten minutes before half-time to muster an effort on goal and their general inability to cope with the movement demanded of them by the tactics of Andrew Bascome, the Cougars coach, rendered them impotent as an attacking force. It did not help that Derrick Brangman was operating as a lone striker against an Onions defence that thrives on a more physical contest.

Lewis completed his hat-trick on the stroke of half-time and the game seemed largely over as a contest at that point.

Cougars improved in the second half as they found more space, and it was no coincidence that it coincided with Kwame Steede’s move into midfield and Phillip Parsons’s arrival in the centre of defence. Still, Cougars’ first goal was the result of a mistake by Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper, who failed to deal with a Williams cross, allowing Battersbee to bundle the ball over the line with an hour gone.

The goal gave Cougars renewed belief and they created a couple of half-chances, one of which Steede volleyed agonisingly wide from six yards out.

Minors killed off any hopes of a Cougars comeback when more good chasing by Darren Doolin and Nathan Peskett put him clear with only Trott to beat. Williams had the last word, however, rifling in a 30-yard rocket that crashed against the underside of the bar, bounced down, came back out again before being adjudged to have crossed the line.

The defeat leaves Cougars level on 16 points with leaders PHC, having played a game more. PHC face Southampton Rangers today, while Somerset Trojans, who are a further two points back, play Robin Hood at home.

Onions, meanwhile, are up to fourth, level on points with Trojans and Hamilton Parish at least until this afternoon.