Duffs sink Rec

Vale Rec 0, North 2

NORTH are through to the semi-finals of the Jeremie Cup. In truth the last night's game at the Corbet Field was about as exciting as a wet Tuesday afternoon in Bexhill-on-Sea.

You could count on one hand the number of chances that the 90 minutes provided. Vale Rec themselves only had one meaningful effort courtesy of right back James Coquelin in the second half.

The night was summed by the fact that the winning coach, Phil Corbet, was not pleased with the victory but by the fact his team had not conceded a goal.

'I'm pleased with that especially keeping a clean sheet,' he said.

The home side were without the influential Matt Patch at centre back while North were missing Jon Veron who had his wisdom teeth taken out last week.

Veron's absence proved to be crucial for the visitors as they were clearly the better side by keeping the possession to dominate the proceedings but they did miss the nippy striker's firepower.

North's first effort came from Dave Rihoy who grazed the bar with a long-range strike within five minutes. Their first goal did come 16 minutes later when Ben Duff had a near post tap in that went under Jody Bisson after Dave Rihoy had displayed some of his flicks and tricks down the right.

The island keeper would not have been happy with that soft goal.

Nearly 10 minutes later Rec's coach Chris Hamon was forced into making a substitution as defender Malcolm Symons limped off with an ankle problem. Jon Baudains dropped from the midfield into the centre of defence with Mark Ramsden taking his place.

Half-time came and went with the things on the pitch getting a bit niggly as all derby matches do.

On the hour Jody Bisson pulled off a super reaction save low down to his left to stop a Ben Duff shot from a crowded area.

This proved to be the last moment of real action for a while as both teams seemed intent in booting the ball up in the air. As the Bob Paisley saying goes - air traffic control could have officiated the match instead of the referee and his linesman.

When the ball did eventually return to earth, Coquelin produced Rec's best effort with 10 minutes left - a sweet low strike from outside the area that de Garis tipped round the far post.

Then the killer punch came for Rec as North got their second when a Tom Duff glancing header at a corner nestled high into the net. It was credited to the North man, but Rec's Stuart Bisson may have been guilty of own goal.

Referee Ian Drillot, who was solid all game, later confirmed that he had given the goal to Duff that was the last thing of note before the final whistle.

'Obviously I'm disappointed with the result,' said Hamon.

'I thought we played all right but we gave the ball away too easily and we gave away two easy goals. We made it difficult for them and it wasn't like Jody was overworked.

'I can't fault the players' effort.'