Devonshire Colts 0

Hamilton Parish 1

Patrick Richardson struck three minutes from time to give Hamilton Parish an unlikely win over Devonshire Colts in the Friendship Trophy at Wellington Oval.

Short of players, and missing Lozendro Symonds, the striker, Colts were a shadow of the side that beat Parish 4-2 on the opening day of the season.

Parish, who are rooted to the bottom of the Premier Division, were also different side yesterday, battling from the first whistle to last and Phillip Burgess, the Parish coach, said his team would continue to fight until the end.

“Our guys have been giving a lot of fight and not backing up from anybody,” Burgess said. “We need to keep looking up and believing in ourselves. In the second half of the season we’ll be looking for better results.”

Neither side was able to take control in a first half that swung one way, and then the other, with little to show for the effort the players put in.

With a host of injuries Colts struggled to find their natural rhythm and largely resorted to launching long balls into the box, a tactic that Parish were more than happy to deal with.

For their part, Parish managed very few attempts on the Colts goal, and Gregory Rose, the Colts goalkeeper, had one of his quieter games.

Things heated up in the second half, when Nigel Burgess, the Parish goalkeeper, was called upon twice in quick succession to turn away Colts efforts from inside the box.

Quinn Simmons missed both chances, after his initial shot was saved, his second effort cannoned off Burgess’s leg and flew over the crossbar. Simmons missed an even better chance ten minutes later when he blasted over from close range.

The miss ultimately cost Colts a spot in the semi-finals.

With time running out, Chris Caisey’s corner found its way to Richardson, who was unmarked at the back post. The Parish player fired the ball through a crowded penalty area and into the top right hand corner of the goal, scoring with his side’s first shot on target.

Jay Bean, the Devonshire Colts coach, had nothing but praise for his injury-ravaged side, who he said gave 100 per cent.

“We have a lot of guys out to injury, and we barely had enough guys to finish out the game today,” he said.

“I’ll tell you this. Our guys are going to continue to give 100 per cent every time we step on the field, no matter what.

“We’ve had a good start to our season thus far. If you look at it, there are only two teams in the league that have scored more goals than us, and only one team that has let in fewer goals than us. So, we’re not planning on changing much going into the second half of the season.

“We’ll continue to play the same way and see what happens.”