Opening-week winners face-off this weekend

Both teams were victorious in their opening group stage match last weekend, with North seeing off Sylvans and Saints beating Bels, and a win for either side this time around would all but ensure semi-final qualification.

‘North are always a dangerous side so we have prepared as well as we can – we are definitely expecting a tough game,’ said Saints boss Jason Leaman.

‘We trained well on Monday and numbers were high, which was great after playing a game on Sunday.

‘I am hoping the lads are a bit more used to the 3G pitch now after playing last week, as we will need full concentration and high intensity for the full 90 minutes against a side like North.

‘I probably would have liked to do a little more preparation ahead of the fixture, but the lads will have the night off on Thursday to attend the Guernsey Sports Commission awards ceremony.’

Saints’ opponents have won seven of their last 10 games in all competitions, and manager Jose Alvarez says that his team are taking the Stranger Cup extremely seriously.

‘When you are involved with North you have to be ready to compete in every single competition with the intention of winning it, and this one is certainly no different.

‘We are all looking forward to this game against St Martin’s – it is always competitive when we play against them and they are on a really good run of form.

‘We will also be missing the players who are involved with Guernsey FC and the under-18s who are playing for the development side, but that gives us the opportunity to get the U16s involved and they have been very good.

‘It is also important that we use the tournament to give people the minutes they need ahead of the Priaulx restart, especially since we have such a tough schedule coming up.’

Elsewhere in the group, Mike Garnett’s Sylvans and Chris Le Friec’s Bels are set to meet on Sunday afternoon as they both look to get up and running in the competition.

A loss for either side would make qualification into the last four extremely unlikely, barring a drastic overturn in goal difference in the final group game.

In the other group, Kevin Gillease’s Rovers play against Vale Rec on Sunday, with the winner almost certainly booking themselves a semi-final place.

Vale Rec ran out as 4-0 winners in their curtain-raiser against Rangers last Saturday, while the Priaulx leaders put on an impressive display to beat the U18s 8-2.

‘We come into the game in good shape in terms of numbers, we want to give players who need minutes time out on the pitch and for us we see it as a bit of a free hit,’ said Rec coach Mark Romeril.

‘The objective for us in this competition is to make it out of the group, and if we beat the U18s next week we will have done that, although we’d still love to win this weekend as well.

‘It is always tough playing against Rovers, they are top of the league for a reason, but we know we can be competitive with a full squad.

‘Having these two new quality additions to the squad in Joe Blackham and Piers Ockleford will also be crucial to giving us more depth, because at this level it is the entire squad that wins you games rather than just the starting XI, so we need to have these numbers.

‘When we played them before Christmas we were missing a lot of players and we were never going to be competitive.

‘This time around it is not a win at all costs for us, but we want to qualify and I am expecting a good game.’

The other game in the group kicks off this weekend’s action tonight as the Guernsey U18s face Chris Tardif’s Rangers, as both teams aim to recover from defeats last weekend to put the pressure on the leading two sides in the group.

FIXTURES

(all at the KGV)

Today – Rangers v Island U18s, 7.45pm.

Tomorrow – St Martin’s v North, 5pm.

Sunday – Rovers v Vale Rec, 12.45pm; Sylvans v Belgrave Wanderers, 3pm.