Le Tocq will take the pens, says still-shocked coach

But after letting slip a late 3-1 lead against Sylvans, Gillease said the widespread post-match disbelief among his players had dissipated and they were fully focused on beating Northerners at Port Soif tomorrow and with it going top of the FNB Priaulx League table.

‘I still haven’t got over it and can’t quite work out how we managed to lose from being so much in control. It really was a kick in the teeth,’ said Gillease, who welcomes back key central defender Tom Strawbridge and forward Sam Hall for the North visit.

Gillease is justified in claiming that for much of the Sylvans cup game Rovers played their best, most convincing football of a season which has seen them win seven of their nine league games to stay close on the heels of St Martin’s, who don’t have a game this weekend – in fact strangely they don’t play again in the league until visiting Northfield on the 24th.

While Fin Whitmore remains out, Gillease reported that his striker is due to resume training next week.

While that shin injury he picked up in the defeat by Bels is still preventing him from running, the one consolation for his coach is that in Will Fazakerley he has a perfectly capable alternative to lead the attack and work off Carlos Canha’s clever promptings.

For 75 minutes against Sylvans Fazakerley, who netted twice, was terrific before, like many of his colleagues, drifting off to sleep.

‘He was unplayable,’ said Gillease. He was all over the place and everything we did came through him.’

But after Fazakerley blazed a free-kick miles over, he largely disappeared and it became the Kyle Smith Show, a complete role reversal.

Of course, had Ben Le Tocq not seen his two spot-kicks saved by Nick Batiste at 3-1, there would have been no late drama.

But while Frank Lampard opted to change his penalty-taker after Jorginho missed twice, Rovers are sticking with Le Tocq. Gillease sees no reason to change and, in practice, the centre-back keeps rifling them home.

‘He’s been our designated penalty-taker from the start of the season,’ said the coach.

Niall Hainsworth, the talented young winger plagued with hamstring trouble last season, is also back in the squad tomorrow.

As for Northerners, things have picked up a little with Jose Alvarez’s side having won three league and cup games on the bounce, scoring 18 in the process.

The thought remains, though, that they are still over-reliant on striker Sam Murray’s goals and not shaping up defensively anywhere near as convincingly as last season, when they were robbed of the title by Covid-19.

There does not appear to be the same effectiveness in transition after losing possession, which probably has a lot to do with the continued absence of Reece de Carteret and Scott Bougourd and injury to Tom de la Mare, who returned against London House Bels in the Cup a week ago.

A decent counter-attraction to that game tomorrow is the second round Guernsey FA Cup tie between Manzur and Alderney at The Track, while on Sunday the Manzur reserves meet Rangers’ senior side, fresh from that win at Mount Hale, in a game at St Andrew’s that completes the last 16 stage.

Both the cup matches have 1.30 kick-offs, the Priaulx League game its usual 2pm start.