Inept Guernsey frustrate Ogier

GUERNSEY had only themselves to blame as they lost their opening South & West Counties Championship match of the season last night. A bemused Steve Ogier could only shake his head in disbelief after watching his island side go down 2-1 to the RAF at Blanche Pierre Lane, unable to give a reason for his players' inability to pass the ball to one another.

'We did OK off the ball but when you concede possession like that, you cannot expect to come away with a result,' he said.

'Every time we won the ball, we gave it back to them. We were inept in possession.

'I cannot fault the effort and we did have our chances, but it was disappointing because we had some decent footballers out there who we know can pass the ball, but it just didn't happen.'

The hosts fell behind midway through the first half but equalised less than two minutes later through debutant Simon Tostevin.

On the stroke of half-time, Kevin Graham believed he had put the home side ahead but referee Dave Gordon had blown for a push in the box.

The RAF's winner came with 23 minutes remaining after they were gifted the ball once again and striker Lewis Brownhill made them pay despite Graham's desperate effort to keep it out.

'We maybe deserved something out of the game, but no more than a draw,' Ogier said.

'We had a perfectly good goal disallowed, but I am not blaming the ref for the loss.'

RAF football manager Keith Christie was delighted with the result obtained by his very young side.

'The oldest player we had was 26 and we had four players under 20, so we are a work in progress, so to speak, and our aim is to use the S&WCC as a springboard for the inter-services competition,' he said.

'We actually had only one recognised defender due to work commitments and injuries so we asked midfield players to fill in at the back and from that perspective we were very pleased as we were trying to play football from everywhere on the park.

'Guernsey were fully committed and played to the attributes they have. They were unlucky with that goal not being given and our goalkeeper made a couple of good saves - it could have been five or six all in the end.'