Flanagan’s Onions secured safe passage to the semi-finals of the Dudley Eve Trophy despite losing to defending champions Dandy Town Hornets at Police Field on Saturday.

Onions, who qualified for the competition for the first time after finishing third in the Digicel Premier Division last season, claimed second place in group A ahead of Devonshire Cougars on goal difference.

Mick Ward’s team knew that they had to avoid a three-goal defeat to advance to the last four with Hornets, who thrashed Cougars 4-1 in their previous group-stage game, although they did endure a nervous finale after Clay Darrell and Tomiko Goater grabbed second-half goals.

Onions almost fell behind in the first minute when a venomous volley from midfielder Jahmel Swan forced Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper, into a smart save, pushing the ball behind for a corner.

At the other end, Nathan Peskett, the Onions midfielder, rattled the crossbar with a superb free kick that left Ajai Daniels rooted to the spot in the Town goal.

Onions thought they had taken the lead moments later when Keston Lewis finished from close range, but the striker was adjudged to have handled the ball in doing so, with the goal disallowed.

In the second period, Fabian Frankson, who was deployed a striker, went close for Hornets after screwing a shot wide from a pinpoint Goater cross from the right wing.

Tempers threatened to boil over midway through the half when Onions defender Sam Butler become tangled up with Denzel Wellman after a heated challenge, with the Hornets midfielder receiving a yellow card for retaliation.

With his team struggling to break down Onions’ physical and organised defence, Jomar Wilkinson, the Hornets coach, introduced the speed and trickery of Darrell and Damon Ming in the 70th minute.

The switch paid dividends almost immediately, with Darrell directing a stooping header past Gould from another excellent cross by the busy Goater on the right wing.

Onions then had reason to feel hard done by when they had what appeared to be stonewall penalty claim turned down after Lewis was hauled down in the box.

Their frustration was compounded when Goater doubled Town’s lead late on with a neat finish to maintain his side’s perfect start to the season.

Ward, the Onions coach, believed that his side had been let down by the indecision of Robert Hudson, the referee, at crucial junctures.

“We know that we’re a lot better than what we showed today, but I think we can take some encouragement from the game,” Ward said.

“I thought they were the better team in the first half, although we did hit the bar and had a goal disallowed.

“I also felt that we had clear penalty turned down — I think the ref had the whistle in his mouth and changed his mind.”