Guernsey face holders away

GUERNSEY under-18s tomorrow face an evening showdown away to last year's champions Suffolk in the FA County Youth Cup. The Sarnians booked a second-round spot with a 4-2 extra-time victory against Herefordshire at Foote's Lane and coach Paul Ockleford is hopeful of further progression.

'It would be great to get through this round, but from the last match, we know we'll have to improve our passing and movement off the ball because Suffolk will be dangerous.'

But since winning the cup, Suffolk have changed manager and lost much of the nucleus of last year's successful side.

Indeed the 4-0 defeat of Cambridgeshire in the first round was a scoreline that by all accounts flattered the holders as they found themselves under pressure for large periods, something of which Ockleford is fully aware.

'From what we know about their last game, Cambridgeshire were all over them but Suffolk had a quick lad up front that caught them out on the break so we may have to play a little deeper at the back to make sure we are not caught out.'

Indeed, the pace of Suffolk's two-goal man Ben Goddard appears to be the biggest danger to the Guernsey backline but with Tom Strawbridge excelling at the back for Sylvans in the Priaulx and Naro Zimmerman high on confidence after a brace in his previous Guernsey outing, they should be confident of keeping Goddard at bay.

At the other end, Billy Page has declared himself fit despite a midweek car accident and should prove to be a handful to the Suffolk back line after he also bagged two goals in the first round.

Rangers' Piers Ockleford is set to captain the side, with the only change from last month's squad seeing Kris Moherndl of Sylvans come in for the injured Jon Loaring.

Locally, tomorrow's Priaulx action sees North travel to St Peter's to play Sylvans while Vale Rec entertain Rangers at the Corbet Field.

Looking ahead to the Sylvans game, North coach Phil Corbet was not too despondent about the extra-time Wheway defeat his side suffered at the hands of Trinity last weekend in Jersey.

'After the Trinity game, the consensus among the players and coaching staff was that it was our best performance of the season so far.

'We had the chances just like they did, but in the end we paid the penalty for not taking one of ours,' said Corbet.

North should welcome back Gavin Le Page after a virus but they will be without the injured Simon Johns for a further three weeks.

But both sides will lose the services of players who are part of Guernsey's FA County Youth Cup squad.

North will be without Alex Le Prevost, Glyn Dyer and Zimmerman while Sylvans will be without regular starter Strawbridge as well as Danny Watts and Moherndl.

But apart from the sidelined Matt Warren, Sylvans coach Joel Avery has a no further injury concerns as he looks to build on the good point gained against Bels in their most recent outing.

'Being at home, we will be going all out for three points on Saturday and with Bels dropping two more points against Vale Rec, who knows, we could be back in the race,' said Avery.

Both Priaulx games kick off at 2pm.

Meanwhile, St Martin's will be missing knee injury victim Simon Geall when they host First Tower in the Deloitte Jeremie Cup, kick off 1.30pm.