Guernsey hang on to maintain home record

Guernsey 22, New Milton & District 18

NEW MILTON gave Guernsey a fright but the Sarnians clung on to maintain their 100% home record and record a vital victory in the Hampshire League One title chase. Coach Rob Box admitted feeling extremely anxious in the closing stages of a tense encounter with fewer than one score separating the teams and his own side making several unforced errors.

'It was a good game and good for the spectators to watch because it could have gone either way. In the last 15-20 minutes, I was very nervous,' he said.

Yet in the opening quarter-of-an-hour, Box would have been delighted.

Playing into a strong, biting wind at Foote's Lane, Guernsey were excellent with ball in hand in the early exchanges, running powerfully at their opponents and consistently making good yards even without injured captain Carl Johnson.

The scrummaging and the line-outs were also functioning well and it was only a matter of time before the home side opened the scoring.

It came on 11min., with Guernsey putting the shove on a New Milton defensive scrum 10m out and, as the ball came out, there was panic in the visitors' ranks and scrum-half Lee Whatman was quick to spot his chance of a simple interception before touching down.

The strong running and good handling continued for another few minutes but Guernsey failed to breech the New Milton defence and suddenly they found themselves trailing as Watcyn Lewis slotted over a couple of penalties in quick succession.

Guernsey's response was good, as within three minutes they regained the lead.

From an attacking scrum close to the New Milton line, the home side initially worked the ball right but then came back the other way and hooker Paul Thomas supplied the pass for Andy Bailey to go over in the left-hand corner.

Guernsey minds must still have been on that score as New Milton hit back immediately with a try set up by the marauding run of number eight Ramsay, admittedly aided by some poor tackling.

Eventually the ball was fed to full-back Danny Tuckey who scored.

However, in the final 10 minutes of the half, Guernsey scored twice more to establish a comfortable lead.

The first came via wing Jim Elliott who produced a strong hand-off before racing over, Whatman converting. Then, right on the interval, Alec Bailey's double miss pass was taken at pace by Paul Livesey.

He made 20 yards, passed to Andy Bailey and he had Ian Johnston in support on the inside.

The centre had a free run right to the line.

That made the score 22-11 to Guernsey at half-time.

The home fans were expecting the margin to grow with Guernsey having the wind at their backs in the second period but that advantage had an adverse effect on the green-and-whites.

They looked to play a more expansive game with long miss-out passes whereas New Milton were sensible in playing the percentage game.

Unsurprisingly, the latter proved to be far more effective and the visitors won the half 7-0.

The try came with 16 minutes remaining, a long period of New Milton pressure finally paying dividends as Ramsay barged over and Lewis converted.

Guernsey nerves might have been eased eight minutes later but Jim Regnard was adjudged to have been held up over the line following a rolling maul and that left an uneasy finish for the home side.

'A couple of our tries were fantastic but in the second half we seemed to ease off a bit.

'But a lot of respect to this New Milton side; they always turn up and give a gutsy performance,' said Box.

'Overall, though, I am pleased we have got rid of another game with a win and are still top of the league. They guys dug in and did well,' he added.