Vale Rec. and Saints keep title bids alive

Vale Rec. 4, Belgraves 0

BELGRAVES better watch out.

Play like they did at the Corbet Field last night and a shock FletcherSports Guernsey FA Cup exit at the hands of Elizabeth College on Saturday is a distinct possibility. Six days after beating Vale Rec. to win the Stranger Cup, Bels again resembled a team in the bottom three of the Priaulx.

Vale Rec., on the other hand, played some sweet football in opening a

two-goal first half advantage from which they never looked back.

Three points were a must for the home side to keep alive their faint hopes of the title and they were ahead within two minutes.

The excellent Jamie Ogier put Craig Le Lerre in and the midfielder tucked his finish under Rhys Gower at the near post.

Bels, who were missing both their Irish stars, went close shortly after when Leighton Chainey's looping header hit the crossbar, but there was no fluency at all to their game and the fire of last week's final had been extinguished.

Vale swept forward with some neat moves, more often than not with the clever David MacNab at the heart of them.

MacNab missed three good chances to score and Gareth Holden put a glancing header just wide before Vale doubled their advantage two minutes from the break.

Le Lerre released Ogier with a cracking pass only to be upended by Gower on the fringe of the box.

A penalty was one of the more straightforward decisions Mark Le Tissier had to make and having shown common sense to just caution Gower. Holden tucked home the penalty.

Wayne Cicmic hit a post for Bels early on in the second half but on 51min. Vale were three up.

Le Lerre was again involved, providing the pass to MacNab, who skipped past Gower skilfully before sliding the ball into an empty net.

MacNab then set up sub Brent Blondel for the fourth with six minutes remaining, by which time coach Chris Hamon had made his maximum number of substitutions, including resting the hard-working Ogier in central midfield.

At Blanche Pierre Lane, champions St Martin's went back to the top of the table with a 4-2 win over struggling Rangers.

Alex Hunter scored twice in quick succession midway through the first period, the first from the spot after a foul on Pierre Jehan.

Jan Renouf's diving header made it 3-0 and Dominic Heaume volleyed in from the edge of the box before Paul Machon and Matt Bailey netted late consolations.