Crucial three points to start a big week

The Green Lions came into the game sitting 18th in the table, albeit with multiple games in hand on most clubs in the league, and with just a single win in their last 13, but goals from Tom Jackson and Ross Allen led them to a first away victory of the campaign.

‘First and foremost it’s about the results and three points is absolutely huge,’ said GFC boss Tony Vance following the win.

‘More importantly, though, was the way we went about it – our players were on the front foot, they were really pro-active, they looked like they didn’t want to get beat and that set the tone for the game.

‘There were a number of excellent performances and nobody can say we didn’t deserve to win the game.’

The match saw GFC return to the Imperial Fields, the home of Tooting and Mitcham United, for the second time in a matter of weeks, with essential maintenance taking place at Sutton Common Rovers’ ground.

The Green Lions started the game on the front foot and threatened Commoners keeper Filip Chalupniczak early on with a series of inswinging corners from forward-turned-defender Dave Rihoy.

It was sloppiness with the ball, though, that was the home side’s undoing, as in the 11th minute a poor clearance from Chalupniczak saw Matt Loaring pick the ball up and slide through 19-year-old midfielder Jackson, who opened up his Guernsey FC account and the scoring on the day with a fine left-footed finish over the Sutton Common Rovers keeper.

Loaring’s work would not stop there either as, less than a minute later, he capitalised from a poor touch from Commoners centre-back Germaine Dua and managed to slip in Ross Allen, who lifted the ball over Chalupniczak from a seemingly impossible position to double Guernsey’s lead.

The hosts did eventually start to come back into the game as the first half progressed, with Yao Aziamale bursting past Tom Martin, only to be caught by Jacob Fallaize who denied the Sutton striker a one-on-one with 17-year-old debutant keeper Lucas Hanley.

Moments later, Aziamale did have a big chance to reduce the deficit for the Commoners, as the centre-forward found himself with space in the box to get a shot off from close range, but his left-footed attempt was scuffed wide.

The home side kept pushing to reduce the deficit as the second half got under way and teenage goalkeeper Hanley was called into action from a corner, saving from close range to keep his clean sheet intact.

The Commoners threw on new signings Ezekiel Bademosi and former Leyton Orient talent Prince Adeyemi midway through the second period in an attempt to rescue a point.

The pair struggled to have the influence that their boss Darren Salmon might have hoped for, though, as besides some late acrobatics from Hanley, the Guernsey goal went largely untested in the last half-hour.

In the end, the Green Lions cruised to victory after what was undoubtedly the best away performance of the season thus far.

The Green Lions have climbed to 16th in the league table after Sunday’s victory and will now face bottom side Staines Town away from home on Wednesday evening in a bid to build on their first away success of the campaign.

‘We really needed a positive performance and now the league table looks a bit nicer than it did before the game,’ said Vance.

‘What we need to do now is get another result against Staines and put some daylight in between us and the others.

‘I thought Matt Loaring was really positive, Tom Jackson was excellent, and Jacob Fallaize was phenomenal, again.

‘Dave Rihoy, too, settled in at left-back and put in an 8/10 performance – he makes it look easy.’