Devonshire Colts 2 Southampton Rangers 3

Substitute Dion Stovell settled the points for Southampton Rangers at Police Field when he scored the winner with his first touch midway through the second half.

Colts had the best possible start, scoring in only the third minute from the first of two penalty calls. But Rangers launched a stunning comeback with two goals in the space of two minutes just before the half-hour, setting them up for the win that Stovell secured with a brilliant free kick from 30 yards.

“We never put our heads down, there’s a lot of spirit in this team now and they have showed a lot of character in the last couple of games,” said Jomar Wilkinson, the Rangers coach.

“It’s a process and we’re finally getting some balance to our game. I don’t think we played to our highest level in terms of our possession-based football, but we were effective today.

“We understood that they were going to bring a lot of energy today, and we appreciated that and understood that we had to be sound defensively. Unfortunately we gave them two penalties, but overall I was pleased with the performance.”

Neither team had broken a sweat in the heat when Colts took the lead in the opening minutes after Chemarl Henry was knocked over inside the box by Jahkai Hill and stepped up to score himself from the resulting spot-kick, sending goalkeeper Shaquille Bean the wrong way.

Rangers were soon in the game, forcing Colts on the back foot as the game opened up. Henry blasted over from the edge of the box after Richard Jones laid the ball back for him from inside the box.

Minutes later the home team, still looking for their first win of the season, were dealt a double blow when Rangers netted twice in two minutes to turn the game around. A throw-in on the right side saw Quadir Maynard shrug off a challenge at the near post before turning and shooting past goalkeeper Keitaro Darrell from a narrow angle.

Then midfielder Damon Ming, who celebrated his 42nd birthday the day before, gave himself the perfect present when he netted against one of his former teams after another good Rangers move opened the Colts defence on the right.

The first-half scoring wasn’t finished as Colts stunned Rangers with an equaliser right on the half, when a second penalty was awarded. This time goalkeeper Bean was blown down for a foul as he put in a sliding tackle just as Henry got off a shot that went wide.

Referee Lloyd Christopher pointed to the spot and Henry scored at the second attempt after his spot-kick was blocked by Bean and he followed up to score from the rebound to make it 2-2.

Rangers were forced into a substitution at the start of the second half after Marquel Nisbett-Tankard went off with an injury after a knock from a Jahzardae Samuels tackle late in the first half.

Colts had the better of the early second-half possession as Jones had a shot blocked by Bean. However, it was Rangers who scored again when Stovell, on two minutes earlier as a replacement for Kieshon Wilson, drove his long-range free kick inside Darrell’s left-hand post after a foul on Maynard by Jahkeylo Burgess, the Colts captain.

Rangers almost added a fourth in the 79th minute when Vernon Perinchief, another sub, for the injured Tre Ming, had a shot graze the top of the crossbar after a good build-up involving Stovell, who got through on the right side of the box before laying the ball back.

“Dion’s a leader, a player we can definitely count on who is starting to feel himself into the team,” Wilkinson said.

“We always knew he had the right potential, so it was just a matter of time. Form comes and goes but quality is there for ever and he has that quality.

”It was important once we got the lead in the second half to understand that defence wins championships and we needed to be sound defensively, especially in the latter part of the game when we needed to be focused and disciplined. I thought we did that and we came away with the three points.“

Referee Christopher was kept busy, booking seven players, including five for Colts, four in the first half.

SCORERS

Devonshire Colts: Henry 3 pen, 45

Southampton Rangers: Maynard 27, D Ming 29, Stovell 64

TEAMS

Devonshire Colts (4-3-3): K Darrell — J Paynter, M Williams (sub: Z Burgess, 78min), C Trott, N Raynor (sub: L Thomas, 66) — J Burgess, J Salaam, R Smith-Jones — C Henry, R Jones, J Samuels (sub: T Eve, 75). Substitutes not used: E Weldon, J Francis, C Crichlow, B O’Connor. Booked: Burgess, Samuels, Trott, Henry, Williams.

Southampton Rangers (4-4-2): S Bean — J Hill, T Manders, R Sampson, M Nisbett-Tankard (sub: Harrison, 46) — D Brangman, T Ming (sub: V Perinchief, 69), Q Maynard, D Ming — J Bassett, K Wilson (sub: D Stovell, 62). Substitutes not used: S Perinchief, D Frost, R Wright. Booked: Bassett, Sampson.

Referee: L Christopher.