Devonshire Cougars 3 Hamilton Parish 0

Devonshire Cougars raised the curtain on a new Premier Division campaign with a thunderous roar at the Den last night, as they gained sweet revenge against Hamilton Parish.

Central to the Hot Peppers’ destruction was Cougars striker Chae Brangman, who lent hard and often on a fragile defence, scoring a hat-trick, which was yet flattering to the losers.

Brangman was ruthless in front of goal, opening the scoring in the eighth minute after being unlocked by a defence-splitting pass from Domico Coddington, shaded to the left of midfield, which placed the big man in acres of space at the top of the penalty area. The striker’s blast from the edge was buried in Nigel Burgess’s bottom left corner.

Parish gave nearly as much as they got in the opening half, but the second half belonged to the home team.

A penalty was awarded to Cougars when Coddington was brought down at the edge of the penalty area by Quinn Outerbridge, with Brangman’s spot-kick finding the roof of the net in the 59th minute.

A minute from the end, Brangman completed his treble, this time with a close-range effort that gave Burgess no chance.

Brangman explained how he had used Cougars’ previous loss to Parish in the Dudley Eve Trophy as fuel for the night’s performance.

“I hold that defeat,” he said. “Tonight it was personal for me.

“I still need to be a bit more clinical because I was able to get behind the defence quite often.

“I have to be a bit more sharp, but it’s still early in the season and it’ll get better as we move forward.”

Parish, who were dominated in the second half, will have to perform much better if they are going to improve on last season’s fifth-place finish.

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars: Chae Brangman 8, 59 pen, 89

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-5-1): A Ingham 6 — Z White 7, T Tucker 7, L Millett 6 (sub: J Thomas, 46min 6), Z Simmons 7 — S Burrows 6 (sub: M Joell, 66 6), Q Maynard 6 (sub: J Brimmer, 46 6), E Darrell 6, D Coddington (sub: J Fox, 79), L Simmons 6 — C Brangman 8. Substitutes not used: D Williams, J Furbert-Wade, D Hendrickson. Booked: Coddington.

Hamilton Parish (4-5-1): N Burgess 6 — A Nelson 5, Q Outerbridge 5, Z Burgess 6, K Wade 6 — D Richardson 6, S Valasse-Paul 6 (sub: S McKittrick, 88), K Knights 6 (sub: T Welch, 66 6), J Bell 6, M Turner 6 (sub: R McKittrick, 88) — C Lindo 6. Booked: Outerbridge.

Referee: A Francis.