WATCH: Le Tissier drives Rec on to reclaim 'their' cup
There was once a time when Vale Rec virtually owned the Stranger Cup, winning it a remarkable 14 straight seasons in the 1970s and 1980s.
The club has had just one further cup success to cheer since the turn of the century, but that is still one more than Rovers, and they kept the Port Soif outfit’s hands off the trophy again with a disciplined and worthy win at Blanche Pierre Lane.
It was a game of few genuine chances but plenty of incident, but while the league leaders once again failed to click into rhythm, Vale were organised, resilient, and took their chances. For much of the game they simply looked like they wanted it more.
The game possibly turned on 28 minutes, when Rovers captain Tobi Oluborode chased an overhit attacking corner and twisted near the touchline to cross back into the box. He immediately went down, concerned opponents called the trainer on, and he went off to hospital in an ambulance with a suspected dislocated knee.
Watch: The goals from the 2023 Stranger Cup final
Rovers were already without three centre-backs, Louis Falla still a couple of weeks away from a return from injury and back-ups Saul Falla and Rob Overcuks barred from playing by the GFA’s seven-day rule ahead of Sunday’s Junior Muratti.
After a 27-minute delay, Niall Hainsworth was joined by Aidan McKay and the two did a manful job, but arguably a loss of height in the centre of their defence cost Rovers the opening goal on 42 minutes.
An earlier deep corner had caused chaos in the Rovers box and caused Adam Bullock to pull off an instinctive block.
This time Jacob Masterton-Pipet’s deep free kick from near the corner flag was headed back across goal by Seb Skillen and Glenn Le Tissier threw himself to nod in by the near post.
Podcast: Hear reaction to Vale Rec's Stranger Cup win on this week's Guernsey Press Football Podcast, along with chat on Alex Scott, Guernsey FC, and the U18 Muratti
Rovers night went from bad to worse immediately on the restart. Martin Savident had roared clear of the Vale back line in the opening minute but with Christian Povall off his line, chose to shoot early and his effort drifted wide.
From the restart, James Grundy was penalised and then sin-binned for his response. Referee Nico Scuotto, who was given a difficult night, went over to the bench as Rovers queried the card, and then sent coach Kevin Gillease from the dug out.
Two minutes later Bullock came to the edge of his box to kick clear an overlong through ball and made an absolute hash of it, effectively passing the ball to Masterton-Pipet, who took aim 30 yards out near the touchline and found the net over the retreating keeper’s head.
The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Rovers and for a fair while all the zip disappeared from their play. McKay took a yellow after another poor kick from Bullock almost played in Le Tissier, and then walked the tightrope when he blocked off Louis Travis on another Rec breakaway.
Le Tissier shot straight at Bullock in another attack, while Sammy Goddard headed over from a corner, but just when it looked as though Rovers would get absolutely nothing from their night, with six minutes left Charlie Platt showed a nice touch of skill on the left, played inside to substitute George Clayton, who threaded it on to Savident who rifled his shot high into the net.
Clayton, fortunate not to be walked for his protests over a lost advantage minutes earlier, this time got a card for his celebrations, Platt was fortunate to just see yellow for a horrible lunge, and as a confetti of yellow cards rained down, Tiago Rodrigues maybe could have also picked one up for 'time-wasting' after blazing miles over into the trees, having been put through one-on-one with Bullock.
As Rec wobbled, Rovers had one last effort, Colton Fletcher weaving into the box and squaring into a defender. Rovers howled for a penalty for handball but Scuotto was having none of it.
