A busy weekend on three different fronts

THE Stranger Cup returns to the agenda tonight and Sylvans coach Martyn de Garis has made his objective very clear.

Stumbling block: Joe Alvarez gives match-winning goal-scorer Glenn Le Tissier a helping hand to get away from the ball on Tuesday night at Northfield where Vale Rec inflicted a major blow on the home side's Priaulx League title ambitions with their 2-1 win. Both sides are back in league action tomorrow with North hosting St Martin's while Rec visit Rovers. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 30395699)

‘To win it,’ he said yesterday, ahead of their group opener against Bels at the KGV today (7.30pm kick-off).

‘We are just trying to win a bit of silverware this season – we are still in the FA Cup as well.’

However, with the involvement of the Island U18 squad in the Stranger, it makes Sylvans’ task that much harder.

‘We are a little bit light on senior players at the moment – we have a very young squad anyway,’ said de Garis, who will have Miles Pengelley back from a long injury absence to bolster his ranks.

‘To be fair, Bels have had a couple of good results recently, they are getting back to their strongest team and we have got to be really competitive and try to match them all over the park.

‘They are capable of beating any team on their day.’

Bels coach Stuart Simon reported that his squad will be much along the same lines as that which beat Manzur 5-1 in the Priaulx League last weekend.

‘We are starting to see people returning now, suspensions lift and numbers getting back up,’ he said.

‘It is noticeable that it makes a big difference when you have got a full squad available – I’m sure pretty much all the coaches can vouch for that – and we just had a couple of months where we had no consistency in the teams we were putting out for each game. Hopefully now we will have a run with the same 16-18 players.

‘The boys are looking forward to it. We have got Sylvans and Manzur in our group, so it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination,’ Simon added of their Stranger campaign.

Meanwhile, Sylvans coach De Garis added that tomorrow he will be keeping a keen eye on the Rocquaine Pirates against Manzur Guernsey FA Cup tie at St Peter’s (1.30pm kick-off), with his side scheduled to face the winners in the quarter-finals.

Tomorrow’s big FNB Priaulx League game sees North host St Martin’s in a clash of the top two at Northfield (2pm kick-off), with the home side needing to bounce back from their midweek defeat to Vale Rec – a result that did not surprise de Garis.

‘Rec did really well on Saturday against us.

‘We were a bit fortunate to be 2-0 up, they came out for the second half, got back level and we were hanging on a bit at the end.

‘They took that momentum into Tuesday night and I thought they would get something out of that game.’

Rec are at Port Soif to face Rovers in the Priaulx League tomorrow (2pm kick-off) while Rangers travel to Alderney (12.30pm kick-off).