Devonshire Cougars 0 Robin Hood 7

A ruthless Robin Hood stormed into the semi-finals of the Dudley Eve Trophy competition after putting Devonshire Cougars to the sword in a lopsided group B contest at Goose Gosling Field last night.

Shakir Smith led the charge with two goals while further tallies from Jaylon Bather, Casey Castle, Antwan Russell, substitute Christopher Ricca and a Tomiko Goater penalty put Hood well out of sight against a Cougars side who were eliminated from the competition.

Hood finished top of their three-team group with maximum points, scoring a staggering 14 goals while conceding just once in their group matches.

John Barry Nusum’s team played the final seven minutes plus stoppage time a man down after goalscorer Russell received a second booking for a deliberate handball.

He received his first booking eight minutes earlier for removing his shirt while celebrating his goal in honour of team-mate Mazhye Burchall, who lost his life in a motorcycle accident at the weekend.

“He got the first card for taking off his shirt but that was out of respect for Muzzy [Burchall],” Nusum, the Hood coach, said. “It was a tough one but Lionel [Cann, the referee] was doing his job, so I understand that.

“It did take away from the night and in the long term, he’s going to have to miss a game. But it wasn’t anything out of character or like a behaviour type of deal. It was just one these things in the moment. After the game, we talked about it and he was apologetic.”

Last night’s match was the second meeting between these two teams in five days, having played to a 1-1 draw in their Premier Division opener at the same venue just hours after Burchall’s death.

“We guys felt like the emotions of the last game we played got the better of us, so we wanted to come and show our quality a bit and were fortunate enough get a couple of early goals, which then set the tone,” Nusum added.

“We were looking to bounce back from what we thought was a lacklustre performance, but again under the circumstances and the emotions of the game, that was to be expected.”

Bather opened the scoring with a powerful header from Castle’s corner just minutes after Casey Hardtman, the Cougars goalkeeper, rolled his ankle gathering the ball on another set-piece.

Castle then went from provider to scorer when he created space for himself on the left side and curled a shot into the far corner past Lovintz Tota, who made the switch from left back to goalkeeper in Hardtman’s absence.

Smith added his name onto the scoresheet when he beat his marker to a ball played into space and finished with aplomb to give Hood a comfortable lead at the break.

Smith grabbed a second just past the hour mark with a free header at the back post after Tota failed to gather Goater’s initial shot.

Russell then made it 5-0 when he broke away down the right side and drilled inside the far corner from a slight angle.

Substitute Ricca then timed his run to perfection before slotting past Tota before Goater completed the rout from the penalty spot after he was fouled in the area.

The Trojans advanced along with Hood to last four of the competition with three points from their two group matches.

“It was just through fate that we got through because we definitely didn’t put it in our hands to get through and unfortunate for Cougars, losing allowed us to go through,” Musceo Hunt, the Somerset coach, said.

“Anytime a team gets a chance to keep progressing in a cup game, it’s always going to boost confidence because the players know they are closer to a final and closer to a possibility of winning it.”

SCORERS

Robin Hood

Bather 19, Castle 27

Smith 42, 63

Russell 73, Ricca 82

Goater 85 pen

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-3-1): C Hardtman (sub: J Mouchette, 15min) — L Tota, D Simmons, Zeko White, C Matthews — J Seymour, Moses Steede — S Pearman, Z Simmons, N Carmichael (sub: D Daniels, 58) — Mark Steede (sub: O Bascome, 67). Substitutes not used: J Smith, N Simmons, T Woodley, W Sinclair, Zekiro White. Booked: D Simmons.

Robin Hood (4-4-2): D Eve — T Bean (sub: E Outerbridge, 54), D Andrade, D Williams, C Castle — J Bather, A Nelson, P Parsons, T Goater — S Smith (sub: C Ricca, 60), A Russell. Substitutes not used: J Nusum, F Matthews. Booked: Russell. Sent off: Russell.

Referee: L Cann.