Dandy Town 7

Devonshire Cougars 2

Dandy Town wrapped up a third Premier Division title in five seasons yesterday at their home away from home, when they thrashed Devonshire Cougars at Goose Gosling Field with Damon Ming and Angelo Simmons both netting braces.

The controversial decision by Town to close St John’s Field for cricket ahead of their crucial league finale paid off as the artificial surface helped produce a match worthy of a title decider.

Town took the lead early in the first half but conceded two quick goals before restoring their lead at the interval with two late strikes.

The second half was virtually all Town as they netted four times, including three in a seven-minute burst late in the game to put the gloss on a successful league campaign.

“Once [Cougars] took the lead it was important for us to keep our composure,” said Jomar Wilkinson, the Town coach, as the traditional Dandy Town bell rang in the background in celebration.

“We know that we have put a lot of hard work in this season and that we were the fitter team, so our focus was to build the game, knowing the game wasn’t going to be won in the first half.

“We just wanted to be patient and be persistent and that we did, and we came out with a victory today. I’m very proud of the players.”

Cougars, last season’s triple crown champions, wanted to have their say in the title race, even though they were missing the likes of Domico Coddington, Kwame Steede and Drewonde Bascome.

They took the game to Town right from the outset and almost grabbed the after just 54 seconds when Mark Steede blasted an effort over the crossbar.

Teenager Zaire Burchall wasted a good chance for Town at the other end when he side-footed over the top from a free kick. Both players made up for the misses when they found the target in the first half as Town took the lead through Burchall’s side-foot from six yards.

They then went 2-1 down after Cougars hit back with two goals in three minutes around the half-hour mark through Macai Battersbee, who was put through by Demetri Daniels in the 29th minute.

Cougars scored again in the 32nd minute when Darius Cox won a corner from his free kick. Cox took the corner and the unmarked Steede glanced a header inside the far post.

Two more goals turned the match back in Town’s favour when Simmons got on the end of a knock-down by Burchall and drove his shot past Daniel Johnson, the Town goalkeeper.

Then, just before the break, Jamal Swan side-footed home from close range after the Cougars’ defence was again exposed. Ming also had an effort from point blank range blocked by Johnson.

“Cougars came out with a game plan and didn’t make it easy at all for us,” Wilkinson said.

“I could single out quite a few of my players today, I thought Angelo had a superb game, Damon was remarkable and one of our youngsters, Zaire Burchall, had a hand in at least two of our goals and scored one himself. I’ve seen some maturity in our youngsters.”

Town took firm control of the match in the second half, though, not before another early chance fell to Mark Steede, a turn and shot which he put inches wide of the far post. Town stretched their lead to 4-2 in the 58th minute when Ming’s shot from the left side saw the ball slip out of the clutches of Johnson, a former Town goalkeeper, and roll over the line.

Town then exploded with three goals in the 81st, 83rd and 88th minutes as Cougars were blown away by the new champions.

Substitute Rico Wells, the younger brother of Nahki, made an instant impact when he fed a diagonal pass to Simmons from the halfway line to send him through on goal before firing past Johnson to make it 5-2.

Ming then followed up on a rebound inside the box to score from close range and Wells closed out the scoring with a left-footed shot from distance that took a deflection before beating Johnson.

It was an effort that Nahki would have no doubt heard about last night, along with his former team’s league triumph.

“Most definitely he would have been proud of his younger brother today, he came on and gave us a good spark and the technique he showed for the goal was superb,” Wilkinson added.

“This is our 40th anniversary and we want to earn some respect for Dandy Town. We want to be in the big conversations and in order to do that we have to win trophies.”

Brendon Minors, the Town captain added: “This is my first time winning the league as captain and it feels great. It’s definitely very exciting, it started out a bit rough but we stuck to our game plan and we were able to overcome in the end.”