Colombians complete their trophy collection

Colombians 3, Tigers 1

More silverware; next season Investec Colombians should approach Brasso for additional sponsorship. The Investec Men's Knockout Trophy joins the Division One shield, the Division Two trophy, the Knockout Plate, The Lower-Division Knock-out Cup, the CI Club trophy and the Upton Trophy in the yellows' trophy cabinet.

But, despite the scoreline, it was far from convincing.

Over the 70min., Tigers played some attractive hockey and created enough chances to have won it.

However, these Tigers were pretty toothless. Of the 12 short-corners they forced, not one resulted directly in a goal.

Many failed to deliver even a shot on target and at least a couple did not even reach the stopper, or by-passed him completely.

It was so unlike Tigers, who usually have a collection of slick routines to test opponents' defences.

For the opening quarter-hour, at least 90 per cent of the play was at one end - the Colombians end.

Yet they were the ones comfortably 2-0 up.

Tigers were hit by two sucker punches, a brace of breakaway goals that saw the yellows soak up the Tigers pressure then burst away to punish the dark-blues for their profligacy in front of goal.

The opener summed up the contest as a whole.

Tigers forced a short-corner, but Warren Cann's attempted push-out dribbled no more the five yards, Simon Beck slipped in his effort to retrieve the loose ball, and within 10 seconds, stand-in Spencer Noyon was picking the ball out of the Tigers net.

The ball travelled the length of the field in a flash, ending with Damien Wallen on the right side of the D and his crashing drive speared through a tiny gap and inside the far post.

Two minutes later, another quick break caught Tigers cold. They lost the ball just inside their opponents' half; Colombians switched the ball from TJ Ozanne to Adam Kitching and when his cross found Chris Gill, the forward slapped the ball home at the second attempt.

'Against the run of play' does not sum up the match position adequately.

By 15min. Tigers were on their sixth short-corner.

Even that was a hash, though somehow they kept the ball alive in the D, tried three shots and then scrambled in the fourth rebound from close range, Dave Enevoldsen applying the final touch.

That finally stung Colombians into going forward more rather than sitting back and they should have earned a third goal from the spot. Jamie Chambers' effort flew wide of Noyon's right post, though.

Noyon produced a couple of splendid stops to deny Ozanne's now trademark short-corner drag-flicks, while at the other end, Jager was sharp to block Mark Babbe's short-corner strike.

After the break it all got a bit tetchy. Andy Bell and Jamie Chambers earned a green each for some spirited challenging; Mark Elliott saw a green for a hand-off on Babbe of which brother Jim - of the Guernsey 1st XV rugby side - would have been proud; and then Elliott and Enevoldsen were yellowed following an incident right under umpire Chris de Putron's nose. Elliott's deliberate body-check deserved the card, Enevoldsen's retaliation could have been red, though the umpire decided to leave him off the pitch for the rest of the match.

Jim Gilligan saw green, Andy Biggins yellow within two minutes of coming on as sub., and late on, Ozanne was also yellowed.

While all that was going on, Noyon denied Wallen, Alexis Mansell was a whisker away from touching in a cross and Kitching put the result beyond doubt with Colombians' third. from close range.