North go further clear at the top

NORTH went four points clear at the top of the Priaulx table on a night when their two major title rivals dropped points, Ryan Zico-Black was on target for Vale Rec and Bels' midfielder Simon Marley broke the same leg for the second time in five months. The island under-21 player has only just returned to first-team action and was taken to hospital in the second half.

North, playing some fine attacking football, romped to a 5-1 win at Northfield with Jon Veron and Dave Rihoy both scoring twice.

'I'm really delighted with the football we played tonight,' said North coach Geoff Tardif.

'We did a real professional job.

'We took our chances well and in the end it was quite a comfortable victory.'

At Blanche Pierre Lane Saints and Sylvans drew 1-1, a result that did neither team a lot of good in terms of the title.

Trim Morgan returned to the Sylvans dug-out and was the more relieved manager after seeing Kevin Gilligan cancelling out Martin Gauvain's first-half strike for Sylvans. Gauvain had earlier missed a penalty.

'We played for half an hour of the 90 minutes,' said Morgan.

'In the second half we stopped passing the ball around and stopped talking to each other. In the end we were very lucky to come away with a point.'

On hearing the North score he added: 'We're playing catch-up.'

'No question we're disappointed not to get all three points,' said Saints' Colin Fallaize.

In the night's other Priaulx game Vale Rec beat Rangers 3-0, Black completing the scoring.