Sarnians pay the price for letting chances go begging

Ultimately the visitors had cause to regret missed chances, certainly in the first half, and once Jersey scored with their first attempt on target on 69min. they were able to see the game out with relatively few alarms.

It left Guernsey fans – relatively few of them standing behind the goal in the new-look cage-less Springfield compared to previous years – wondering just how different things might have been had Danny Hale scored with a point-blank header in just the third minute of the game.

Charlton Gauvain dinked in a lovely cross from the left-hand side to the edge of the six-yard box. Hale leapt to head home but Euan van der Vliet – once again a thorn in a Guernsey side – flew to his right to palm the golden chance away.

Jersey swept up their own left-hand side and Calvin Weir, who was lively early on, rolled a cross through to the back post. Adam Trotter was striding on to the chance and a goal looked certain, but the midfielder could not sort his feet out and the chance went begging.

They were glorious chances for both sides offering the kind of early goal which would, could, indeed, dramatically change a game.

Guernsey’s midfield four of Gauvain, Kez Mahon, Ben Acey and Tom Jackson buzzed around flexibly and fluidly, and although Guernsey played without much width, they got the early foothold in the game which promised good things.

For a while it resembled a 1970s Muratti as both sides sought to apply physical superiority. Jacob Fallaize was wrestling with Lorne Bickley and at times the Guernsey penalty box resembled a Royal Rumble on Jersey corners and free kicks. Keanu Marsh picked up an early yellow card for a cynical grab on halfway but there was never any threat to Jason Martin in the Guernsey goal.

The best chances continued to fall Guernsey’s way. Hale was blocked and narrowly wide with the follow-up, Allen volleyed a bouncing ball well over and then, slipped through by Gauvain, had the chance of the match.

Behind the pursuing Jack Cannon, his fellow veteran continued towards the box, seemingly set for an inevitable goal. He hesitated slightly, maybe looking to commit Van der Vliet, but the keeper stood strong and when Allen finally pulled the trigger, the keeper took the shot in the chest. Acey could not control the rebound and by the time Hale lofted the ball back towards goal, with Van der Vliet stranded, Allen was offside.

The second half continued in similar vein. Fallaize could not direct his header goalwards on Hale’s free kick immediately from the restart and Martin’s only job for the next 20 minutes was collecting the inevitable carrots lobbed at him by Jersey fans behind the goal.

Gauvain played Allen in twice, first he was squeezed out by Jersey captain James Queree and then he dragged a shot across the goal.

Kamen Nafkha had picked up a yellow card seemingly for bumping into referee Andy Haines and a couple of minutes later went down injured and was replaced by Jake Prince, who had immediate impact on the game, playing further forward than the man he replaced.

With his extra pace he seemed to surprise Jamie Dodd on a ball played down the Jersey inside-right channel, and poked the ball back towards Johnny Le Quesne on the edge of the area, who floated in a cross to the back post where Bickley found a yard of space and stooped to head home from three yards.

It was a dagger to green hearts. All that domination frustrated once again.

The best chance of an equaliser came from substitute Will Fazakerley, who headed a corner on to the crossbar on 80 minutes, before the flashpoint of the game – which had been coming.

Gauvain was by now playing quarterback on the halfway line, taking all the free kicks and firing the ball towards the Jersey box. When an attack broke down Trotter hared after the loose ball and Gauvain was also 100% committed for what was, at best, a 40-60 tackle. The Jerseyman did indeed get there first and Gauvain hacked him down in a fully-committed challenge, which led to some fully-committed argy bargy in the centre circle.

It seemed the Guernseyman must go and Haines reached for his back pocket, one assumed for a red card, before a 21-man pile-up ensued. It was allowed to blow itself out, at which point Gauvain was, to much surprise, just booked and Van der Vliet was carded as well. It emerged that the referee had blown for another foul fractionally before the Gauvain challenge.

Guernsey still worked the better chances. Acey danced towards the box from the left-hand side and the ball spun across the area to an unmarked Mahon steaming in from the right, but as the keeper advanced he blazed wildly over.

In the 103rd minute Prince made Martin make a diving save on a weak shot – the visiting keeper’s only real save of the game – but as the ball was cleared Haines blew the whistle to confirm the season’s ‘Redwash’.