Devonshire Cougars 4 Dandy Town 1

Devonshire Cougars finished the season on a positive note with an entertaining display at Devonshire Rec on Sunday.

Domico Coddington led the way with a well-taken hat-trick to guide his team to a third-place finish in the Premier Division and his coach Kwame Steede was happy with his team despite falling away from the race for the league title a few weeks ago.

“We went through a lot of trials and tribulations this season but as a whole we have made progress in the last three years and are still growing as a team,” Steede said.

"Domico is one of the oldest players in the league but is one of the top goalscorers. He puts in a lot of work outside training and it is showing. He is also an inspiration to our younger players and they look up to him.’

Town started the game better and ran at the home team from the opening whistle but lacked a final touch in the attacking third. Cougars absorbed the early pressure and opened the scoring against the run of play when Simone Burrows found Domico Coddington, who rifled a shot which went in off the crossbar giving Town stand-in goalkeeper Seion Darrell no chance.

Minutes later two Town defenders were involved in a mix-up, which allowed a Coddington cross to bounce inside the box for an alert Burrows to pounce and lob the advancing Darrell to double the lead.

Town refused to back off and continued to press with Cecoy Robinson dribbling through but his shot rattled the crossbar and bounced back into play, where Dakayo Leverock caught Kenneth DeSilva off his line with a beautiful chip only for the goalkeeper to backpedal and time his jump to perfection to push the shot over the top.

Just before the interval, Leverock had only DeSilva to beat but the goalkeeper did well to dive to his left to push the goalbound strike away.

Town pulled a goal back early in the second half when Robinson held off defender Jonas Schroder before cutting inside to hit a piledriver from an angle which beat DeSilva at the near post.

Cougars restored their two-goal advantage immediately from the kick-off as Coddington ran through the middle to hit a low drive, which beat Darrell for pace as it settled in the bottom left corner.

Coddington completed his hat-trick when Mikel Thomas threaded a defence-splitting pass for him to run on to and he hit a low drive without breaking stride to close out the scoring.

Robinson, Town’s workhorse, pushed for a second as he went on a solo effort leaving two defenders in his wake before chipping over the top.

Daniel Cook thought he had pulled one back for Town when he dispossessed Schroder but blasted wide from just inside the box.

The only blemish on Cougars’ day came when Schroder felt he had been fouled and let his feelings be known to referee Amaury Majors, who dismissed him for using foul and abusive language.

SCORERS:

Devonshire Cougars: Coddington 7, 53, 66; S Burrows 16

Dandy Town: Robinson 52

Teams

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-3-1): K DeSilva 7 —- J Thomas 6, Z White 5 ( sub: L Millett, 69min 5) J Schroder 5, J Fox 6 —- J Wade 6, S Burrows 6 (sub: C Brimmer, 54 5)—- D Daniels 6, M Thomas 6, J Brimmer 5 (sub: Z Simmons, 54 5) —- D Coddington 8 (sub: N Simmons, 69 5) Substitutes not used: D Simmons. Sent off: Schroder.

Dandy Town Hornets (4-2-3-1): S Darrell 6 —- E Blankendal 6, T Webb 6, E Moore 6, A Furbert 5 —- J Bean-Lindo 6, D Cook 6 —- T Goater 5 (sub: A Lewis, 46 5) D Leverock 6 (sub: Q Watson, 73), E Outerbridge 5 (sub: M Issac, 61 5) —- C Robinson 7. Substitutes not used: A Simmons, N Spence, A Daniels. Booked: Watson

Referee: A Majors