Whitmore back for Rovers
ROVERS coach Kevin Gillease says he wants his side to ‘attack’ the Wheway Cup as his side make their return to the competition tomorrow.
‘We want to put our last few performances behind us, I think it will be a nice distraction for the whole club to go over there and just play a game without pressure on our back,’ said the head coach.
The Port Soif-based side lost 3-0 on their return to inter-island football last Saturday as visitors Grouville advanced to the next round of the Jeremie Cup. However, Gillease’s side will have the chance to redeem themselves against JTC Jersey Wanderers, with a semi-final spot at stake.
Wanderers currently sit fifth in the Jersey Combination League, one place behind Grouville, and lost 4-0 in the final of the JFA Cup on Wednesday night to Rovers’ most recent opponents.
‘The squad that we have left are all really excited for it, it’s a great opportunity for us to pit our wits against Jersey opposition again.
‘We don’t know anything about Wanderers, just like we didn’t know anything about Grouville, so it’s a fresh game and I think we just have to leave the last few weeks behind and go in with a clean slate then see where it takes us,’ he added.
The pain of last weekend’s loss is still with Gillease.
‘We probably didn’t do ourselves justice on Saturday, we were too slow out of the blocks.’
‘We still had Wednesday night’s game in our legs for the first 15 minutes or so, I thought – it took us a while to get going.’
‘Ultimately I think we started with the wrong shape as well, which took us 15 minutes or so to change things and get ourselves back in the game, but by then the damage had been done. They were sharp out of the blocks and swamped us in the first 15 minutes, we couldn’t get out of our half at all, which was a shame because our game plan was to be aggressive and go for the jugular so it was pretty much the opposite of what we were hoping for,’ he said.
‘There’s only one way to respond and that is to put in a performance.’
The coach also provided some team news ahead of their trip to Jersey, as his depleted squad are set to receive a boost with the return of one of their leading marksmen.
‘We have quite a few missing to be fair, Adam Bullock is out as his suspension is starting, we have no Colton Fletcher, Lewis Robin, Tom Nightingale, Aidan McKay, Jack Batiste, Niall Hainsworth and of course all of the long-term ones are still out as well.’
‘We have got Fin Whitmore back this weekend though, he’s come back from uni and he’s raring to go, which is a massive plus.’
Meanwhile, Vale Rec make their return to inter-island football as they welcome St Peter to the Corbet Field in the Jeremie tomorrow.
Craig Tyrrell’s side come into the fixture off the back of a 3-2 loss in the Grand Fort Road Derby last Saturday as they exited the Guernsey FA Cup at the quarter-final stage.
The depleted Rec side pushed their neighbours all the way in their most recent clash and it took until the 123rd minute for North to get the winner.
Rec’s opponents are set to come into the fixture as favourites as they currently sit second in Jersey’s top division with just two league losses all season.
St Peter are also unbeaten in 2022 and have won seven of their last eight games, meaning Tyrrell’s men will surely have to be at their very best as they aim to book a spot in the Jeremie Cup semi-final.
