Devonshire Cougars 1 North Village 3

Jai Bean scored twice for North Village as they blazed past Devonshire Cougars and into the final of the FA Cup at PHC last night.

Bean opened the scoring with a 29th-minute penalty and followed up with a header in the 58th minute. Substitute Jaizel Smith-DeShields finished off Cougars with a brilliant strike in the 81st minute, with veteran forward Domico Coddington scoring the only goal for Cougars from the spot in the 33rd minute.

Bean, who was not part of the Village side that defeated PHC in last season’s final, was pleased his side picked up the tempo after a lethargic start.

“I'm glad I got two good goals today to take my team to the final,’’ Bean said.

“I couldn't ask for more and I just had to do my job to help the team do what it had to do, which is to win.

“The game was good. It started off a bit slow, but we played really well towards the end and we gave it our all.

“We were in the final last season and won the FA Cup. We have one more game and we’re looking to win it. I want to play against St George’s in the final.”

After securing a spot in the FA Cup final, Village coach Kenny Thompson has now shifted his attention to the last four matches of the season with Village locked in a two-team race for the league title alongside PHC with just three matches left.

“It’s a great feeling to get to the final,’’ Thompson told The Royal Gazette.

“Our next focus is back to the league. We have three league matches to go and our focus is on Sunday’s match against Social Club.

“It’s pleasing to get to the final in a performance that we built over 90 minutes.

“We didn't start well but we were really solid defensively and we were gradually able to build a performance that ensured in the end we deserved the win.

“Both teams were feeling each other and content to sit back a little bit. The tempo wasn't so high but in a match of this type of importance those things happen.

“It takes a while sometimes for something to ignite a little bit of energy, and our first goal changed the tempo of the match.

“I thought we managed the game well throughout the 90 minutes.”

The match started off slow as the two teams adopted a cautious approach with Coddington and Village’s Daion Swan-DeSilva coming close to scoring in the early stages.

Two penalty decisions by referee Anthony Francis brought the match to life. Francis pointed to the spot when Troy Tucker was impeded inside the box and Bean sent Keitaro Darrell the wrong way from the retake after his first attempt was disallowed for players encroaching.

Cougars earned a penalty for what Francis deemed to be a push on Coddington by Tahmi Williams when the ball was swung into the Village box and the striker maintained his composure to beat Detre Bell.

Two minutes into the second half, Darrell came up with a brilliant save to push Swan-DeSilva’s shot out for a corner and Jalen Harvey saw his excellent free kick come off the crossbar in the 55th minute after Swan-DeSilva was brought down on the edge of the box.

Village restored their lead when Bean headed in Swan-DeSilva’s perfect delivery to beat Darrell on the near post and the holders were not done with scoring, as Smith-DeShields got the third with an effort from outside the box.

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars: Coddington 33 pen

North Village: Bean 29 pen, 58, Smith-DeShields 81

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-5-1): K Darrell 6 – J Thomas 6, L Simmons 6, Z White 6, L Millett 6 – D Simmons 6, S Burrows 6 (sub: J Fox, 71min), D Daniels 6, J Scroder 6 (sub: J Brimmer, 82), D Coddington 7 – Q Maynard 5 (sub: E Darrell, 71). Substitutes not used: J Wade, N Simmons, Z Simmons, M Thomas. Booked: Coddington, Scroder

North Village (3-2-4-1): D Bell 6 – K Knights 6, T Wilson 6, T Williams 6 – K Harrison 6 (sub: L Evans, 81), J Harvey 7 – L Steede 6 (sub: T Bea, 71), T Tucker 7, A DeShield Tankard 5 (sub: J Smith-DeShields, 61 6), D Swan-DeSilva 7 (sub: T Ming, 81) – J Bean 8. Substitutes notused: V Perinchief, D Wainwright, J Outerbridge.

Referee: A Francis.