X-Roads 1 Devonshire Cougars 1

Devonshire Cougars left it late to come away with a draw against X-Roads at Garrison Field yesterday.

Donovan Thompson’s early goal looked like it would be enough to seal all three points, until substitute Shaki Pearman popped up in the dying minutes to earn his team a share of the spoils.

Vance Brown, the Cougars coach, said: “We made a number of changes today and maybe that contributed to us being a little off the ball.

“But the team fought through it, we eventually got the goal and from that standpoint its definitely a point gained for us.”

In a highly competitive match, X-Roads seemed to have the slight edge from the outset and had a couple of early looks at goal.

Tyrell Burgess had his back post header blocked by a defender and then goalkeeper Ajai Daniels was off his line sharply to save Thompson’s shot after being played through by Patrick Richardson.

The same pair would link up again in the eighteenth minute to produce the game’s first goal. Richardson got to an overhit cross before the chasing goalkeeper and clipped a perfect ball to the back post for Thompson to nod home from three yards.

Minutes later, it was Thompson again, beating his man for pace and cutting across the box, but his shot was blocked by the recovering defender.

At the other end, the hard-working Alan Douglas Jr had his team’s best chance late in the half after receiving a flick on from the equally industrious Zari Simmons. However, both his initial shot and the rebound were well saved by Jez Burrows.

Thompson picked up where he left off after the break and was in on goal again, riding tackles on his way into the box, but his low shot was again saved by the feet of Daniels.

Both teams made substitutions midway through the half and Cougars were starting to look more threatening.

Burrows was twice called into action by Simmons as the latter tried his luck from the edge of the box, and then again from a free kick that was heading for the top corner.

The X-Roads goalkeeper was equal to the task in both instances, getting a firm hand to parry the ball away from danger.

In the 85th minute, Thompson had a golden opportunity to put the game away after receiving a clever reverse pass from substitute Aaron Spencer that left him with only the goalkeeper to beat from seven yards. However, the striker’s shot was straight at Daniels who made the easy save.

The miss would prove costly in the end when Pearman was at the doorstep in the 89th minute to finish a well-placed cross from fellow substitute Elisha Darrell.

SCORERS

X-Roads

Thompson 18

Devonshire Cougars

Pearman 89

TEAMS

X Roads (4-3-3): J Burrows — C McDowell, J Furbert, K Wilkinson, C Hayward — T Daniels, D Woolridge (sub: A Spencer, 46), T Burgess (sub: A Burgess, 60) —

A Simons, P Richardson (sub: S Cannonier, 78), D Thompson. Substitutes not used: D Cooper, S Thomas, N Richardson, A Cannonier.

Devonshire Cougars (4-3-3): A Daniels — J Mouchette, Zekiro White, Zeko White, A Samuels — C Maybury (sub: E Darrell, 73), E Butterfield-Tankard (sub: S Pearman, 78), C Caisey — Z Simmons, L Tota (sub L Tota 61), A Douglas Jr. Substitutes not used: J Fox, K Trott, J Furbert-Wade, D Williams. Booked: Z Simmons 90.

Referee: M Wyer.