Whalley proud of his team’s efforts
GUERNSEY did themselves proud when faced with several Premier Division players, but ultimately their EH Tier Two Championship campaign ended at the first hurdle.
The Sarnians, who had a small match-day squad for their trip to one of England’s biggest clubs due to injuries and unavailabilities, started superbly with two goals in the opening 10 minutes.
The expected response, though, came from the East Grinstead ‘Seconds’ who halved the deficit before half-time and then scored twice in the second half to edge through 3-2, the winner having come with six minutes remaining.
Guernsey still came within a whisker of forcing another penalty shoot-out, as they had done against the same team last season, but it wasn’t to be their day.
‘This was a very different-looking East Grinstead team to that which we faced last year – they had five first-team players and their first team play in the Premier Division, so they had some incredibly strong players,’ said Guernsey player-coach Andy Whalley.
‘We put in a great, determined performance, we dug in really well and there was some very courageous defending.
‘We scored a couple of early goals thanks to great finishes by Steve [Waldrom] and Jay [Piset], but then it was a case of us trying to catch East Grinstead on the break.
‘Even when they went ahead late on, I always felt that there just might be that one more chance and we forced a couple of short-corners – the first one they ran down and the second just snuck past the post via a deflection.
‘We ran them very close.’
More in Tuesday's Guernsey Press.
