Guernsey victory was all that mattered

IT WAS not pretty but they got the job done. That is the manner of how Guernsey won the 80th Junior Muratti at the weekend.

Paul Ockleford sent his boys out with instructions to play direct football and it worked.

Look at the scoreline: 2-1 to the green-and-whites.

The plan was simple. Get the ball to Ross Allen and let him weave his magic.

With these tactics, Ockleford might have sold his men short.

They definitely had the passing skills and the off-the-ball movement to be able to play a more attractive style of football.

But Murattis are not played on Copacabana beach.

As we know, they are gritty, dog-eat-dog affairs. Both teams go at it as if it is an SAS operation: get in there, get the job done and get out.

That is what Ockleford instructed his boys to do and they followed it to a T.

The coach has done a great job with them in his first year in charge.

The team was solid and well drilled.

Goalkeeper Tom Le Tissier was confident when dealing with everything that was thrown at him.

Captain Arrian Green at centre half was

reminiscent in his play of John Terry and in the way he marshalled his troops. He never looked flustered when dealing with an attack and his maturity shone through.

The two 16-year-olds, Alex Le Prevost and Piers Ockleford, were solid and dealt with Jersey's talented Jamie Allan competently in the centre of midfield.

Allan was a big brute of a player and Jersey's best footballer on the park. He gave it his all and the gash on Anthony O'Regan's leg was proof of that. Le Prevost and Ockleford never looked intimidated.

Ollie Smith came on up front with Allen when O'Regan went off injured in the first minute. Smith looked off the pace initially, but he soon settled in and he put in a workman-like performance that was the perfect foil for his partner.

Another player to single out is winger Kyle Stone.

Now he is a footballing paradox: on the ball he is Juninho, off it, Dennis Wise.

He is two players in one, a skilful wide man with a bag of tricks and a hard-hitting midfield enforcer.

He easily could have done a job in the centre as a defensive midfielder.

One area he can work on is his temperament.

He earned himself a yellow card for some 'afters' following a tackle and he enjoyed a few animated chats with the referee throughout the game.

If he can stamp that out, he will be a great player.

The man-of-the-match award was a funny one.

Stone received this accolade but in fairness it could have gone to Allen for his two goals that won the game for Guernsey.

But playing right in front of the grandstand during the second half, winger Stone dazzled the man-of-the-match adjudicators with his skill.

They must have been mesmerised by him to overlook Allen who was the best player on show.

The Rangers centre forward's close control, pace and strength ensured that he was always a handful for the Jersey defence. Whenever he had the ball, there was a feeling he was going to score.

Allen fully deserves the title of the 'best striker in junior Channel Islands football' given to him by Jersey's manager Jon Welsh. On the strength of his performance on Sunday, he must be not just the best striker but the best player in the two islands in his age group.

Stone might have something to say about that, though.