Guernsey Press

Video - Lacklustre GFC get lucky

Guernsey FC 4, Raynes Park Vale 3

Published

Guernsey FC v Horley Town and Raynes Park Vale

Video courtesy of GFCTV in partnership with kings.gg

Guernsey FC 4, Raynes Park Vale 3

COME midnight on bank holiday Monday next month, GFC fans might be persuaded to tip a celebratory glass in appreciation to a chap called Anthony Moulds.

Anthony who? some might say.

But it just may be that it was the Raynes Park No. 3 who scored the goal that ultimately makes the difference in GFC's second promotion-searching season.

With three minutes left at Footes Lane yesterday, GFC seemed destined to drop two more vital points.

A much-changed side, again lacking Ross Allen, had struggled for almost an hour and a half and Raynes Park were good value for at least a point.

But then stand-in skipper Dom Heaume drove a low ball across the face of the Raynes Park goal and in his desperation to clear, Moulds diverted the ball into his own net.

GFC had got lucky and Heaume acknowledged that beyond the final whistle.

'We huffed and puffed big time,' said the Green Lions' No. 9.

'That goal was massively important and it would have felt like a defeat,' he added with a big dose of understatement.

'We were lacklustre and we couldn't blame it on tiredness. We were just letting ourselves down,' added the man who had started the game up front but dropped back into his now regular midfield slot for the entire second half.

GFC had walloped Lee Dobinson's blues away from home, so when Alex Le Prevost headed the home side ahead after just four minutes, it seemed that the home crowd were going to have a fun day out in the warmest conditions at 'The Lane' in many, many months.

Perhaps the same thoughts got into the heads of the home side because for the rest of the period, they were distinctly ordinary.

Raynes Park levelled on 14 minutes when a cross came in from the left-hand side and Dave Mosley was left unmarked to volley home from 10 yards.

On 27min., the visitors were 2-1 ahead.

From a free-kick just outside the area, Moulds' delivery deflected off the bottom of the defensive wall and Kelvin Herron reacted quicker than any defender to poke home into the corner.

On 36min. Raynes Park keeper Adam Skinner made an excellent fingertip save from Glyn Dyer's curling shot from the edge of the area and on the brink of half-time Heaume went close with a header from Nigel Hutton's cross.

For the start of the second half, Tony Vance opted to bring on Dave Rihoy for defender Naro Zimmerman and bolster the front line.

Le Prevost dropped back into central defence and Heaume into midfield, where the side had been badly lacking physicality.

The move almost instantly paid dividends.

Matt Loaring pulled a great early chance just wide and in the next attack the same man did well to whip a dangerous ball in from the right byline and out beyond the far post, where Rihoy smashed home with his first touch of the game.

Four minutes later GFC were ahead.

Heaume got up highest inside the six-yard box and when his header dropped down off the crossbar, Hutton was on hand to nod home from inches.

Surely, the Lions would now ease to three comfortable points? But no.

Instead, they dithered in defence and on 64min. Rob Wilkinson rifled home an equaliser from 15 yards.

Scott Bradford came on for Loaring and Ollie McKenzie for Jacques Isabelle, but the home side still struggled to create anything clear cut and as the game drifted towards a conclusion it was Raynes Park who nearly scored again.

Thankfully for the home side, Le Prevost just managed to get in a desperate block as Callum Forbes pulled the trigger and the shot ballooned beyond for a corner.

Raynes Park deserved to take something from the game but then came that unfortunate own goal, one heavily celebrated by the Garenne Stand audience.

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