‘Good result, not good game’
NORTHERNERS had to come from behind to beat their neighbours and keep their FNB Priaulx League title challenge on track on Saturday afternoon.
While fellow contenders Rovers and St Martin’s were both winning by four-goal margins over Alderney Nomads and Rangers respectively, the chocolate-and-blues found themselves trailing to Luke Gaudion’s opener at half-time at the Corbet Field.
However, two second-half goals from the in-form Kyle Smith saw the visitors take all three points from a typically hard-fought and scrappy derby encounter.
‘Not a very good game,’ said North coach Jose Alvarez candidly.
‘I think the result was deserved in the end, but it was not a good game.
‘We should be playing better. To be fair to the guys, in the last few weeks we have been doing pretty well. Today we got the result, which was the main thing, but the performance wasn’t one of the best.’
His opposite number, Mark Romeril, felt his side made the game as competitive as they could, especially with Rec having one eye on Wednesday’s Stranger Cup final.
‘We’re in the middle of playing Rovers and North five times and as much as we tried not to make a deal of Wednesday night, it was in the back of our minds and obviously we had to do a few things today with that in mind,’ the Vale coach said.
‘But credit to the boys, we made them work hard. It was probably the worst fixture we could have got today because we are playing against a team who had to win and the lads did as well as they could.’
In Alderney, Charlie Platt scored a brace while Dale Webb and Blair Howitt got the other goals in a 4-0 win for Rovers.
At the KGV, St Martin's won 5-1 with George Mason, Jake Lowe, Chris Le Noury, Callum Le Lacheur and Rio Bowditch on the scoresheet. The reply for Rangers came via an own goal.
Vale Rec v North match report in Monday's Guernsey Press.
