GFC boss Vance hates ‘horrible’ second half

After beating South Park last Wednesday, Tony Vance was doing a jig in the rain.

Following Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Marlow, he had a face like thunder and a ‘really sour’ taste in his mouth.

It was not his own team’s performance that was responsible for such a mood shift, rather the win-at-all-cost tactics – comically referred to as ‘housery’ by a Garenne Stand regular – adopted by the promotion-chasing visitors in the second half having deservedly found themselves trailing at the break.

‘That wasn’t a game of football … or one team was trying to play the game,’ said GFC manager Vance.

‘I hated that second half, it was horrible.

‘I’ve got to be careful what I say here, but that’s not how to win a game. If that had been a game of football, we’d have won.

‘Those antics are not in the rules and the referee wasn’t able to deal with it. The ball was probably in play for about 15 minutes in the second half, there should have been about 15 minutes of added time, he gave six.

‘But we didn’t lose a football match there, unfortunately. I’m dumbfounded really.’

When Naheer-Omar Nawaf broke the deadlock in clinical fashion midway through the first half, it was harsh on the Green Lions, but they fought back to lead 2-1 at the interval thanks to two goals originating from Jamie Dodd long throws. The first was bundled over the line by Ross Allen, the second acrobatically overhead-kicked into the roof of the net by Sam Murray.

While there had been one multi-player scuffle in the first half with Jacob Fallaize and former Premier League midfielder Tom Soares literally going head-to-head after a grapple in the box, it had generally been a competitive and often entertaining contest.

After the turnaround, though, Marlow turned to what some might kindly describe as a streetwise ploy to disrupt and cajole things to their benefit.

As it turned out, they were the ones to finish with 10 men as Curtis Ujah was shown a straight red card for a cheap shot on Fallaize, but two penalties – the first fair and converted by Junaid Bell, the second contentious and scored by Soares – saw them claim all three points.

‘We were the better team [in the first half], we deserved to be ahead and they didn’t play the game in the second half – or they played “a” game, we weren’t able to deal with it because it’s not really the norm,’ Vance said.

‘They got themselves a win, but not by playing football. Obviously, they’ll be happy with that...

‘I like their manager, but I’m speechless.’

• Match report in Monday's Guernsey Press.