WATCH: Jersey extend Star Trophy streak with Footes Lane win
Jersey's under-15s eased to an ultimately comfortable victory in yesterday’s Star Trophy at Footes to continue Guernsey’s miserable run in the long-running schoolboy’s inter-insular.
A goal in each half proved enough for the Caesareans and the scoreline accurately reflected their superiority on the day.
The home side were not outclassed nor disgraced, but most of the better football on the day was played by the boys in red, who could have taken the lead in the game’s opening exchange.
Guernsey defender Henry Marsh missed a header and Jacob Clynes played in Liam Brennan on Jersey’s right, but the diminutive raider missed his kick completely, and though he recovered quickly to get a shot off, Charlie Bird in the Guernsey goal pushed it away for a corner.
As ever, opening exchanges at this level were often nervy and panicked and the ball spent plenty of time in the air. Jersey narrowly edged the first quarter, though Finlay Patterson, the smallest lad in the Guernsey line-up, showed he was capable of causing problems. He drew a foul on 15min. to create a promising position for a free-kick but captain Emerson Nobes was high and wide with his curling effort.
Watch: Highlights from the 2023 Star Trophy at Footes Lane
Jersey dominated the next few minutes, which ultimately led to the opening goal. Brennan again did very well to work the space for a shot, which Bird somehow turned on to the bar and then blocked the follow-up from point-blank range. Eventually Guernsey scrambled the ball out for a corner.
Jersey captain Joey O’Toole’s in-swinging delivery left Bird flailing and the ball was hacked off the line, but Guernsey failed to complete the clearance and from the left hand edge of the box, Clynes fired back across the keeper to open the scoring.
Guernsey went straight back at them from the restart and Noah Hoolahan’s low right-wing cross was fumbled by Sam Devy in the Jersey goal, but just out of the reach of Patterson.
Clear-cut chances were few and far between, though Bird almost let a shot through his hands and Guernsey blazed a couple of chances well wide.
Just before the break Patterson came closest to levelling matters. His persistence eased Jersey’s Goncalves off the ball and as he jinked past another defender into the box, and then around Devy, it seemed an equaliser was on the cards, but Goncalves, who gave a domineering display at the centre of the visitors’ defence, got back to block and to repel the follow-up from Hoolahan.
Rather like the U18 Muratti a month previously, Guernsey were behind on any judge’s scorecard at the break, but still in the game, but the opening moments of the second half proved decisive.
Hesitant Guernsey defending allowed Will Yates to run down the Guernsey left, muscle his way all the way to the byline, and then cross for Brennan to pop up to finish.
Two goals down felt a mountain too far to climb and it could have been worse just 90 seconds later, the same Jersey pair combining for exactly the same move but this time down the other flank, ending on this occasion with Brennan blazing over.
The substitutes started pouring on for both sides and as Guernsey huffed and puffed for a way back into the game, play became even more disjointed.
Nobes, who had shown some nice skills, if not the physicality of his father John, watching from the dug out, was pushed up front but to no real effect.
A dangerous free-kick for Guernsey on the hour led to two Jersey yellow cards and some consternation, but ultimately their break proved more effective and Jimmy Montgomery did well to stop it.
Jersey substitute Aiden Le Saint stumbled through three fouls before finally drawing a free-kick which O’Toole aimed to curl beneath the crossbar but Bird palmed over, and from the other side Stanley Dunne crashed an effort off the bar.
Guernsey’s best, and only significant effort of the half, came from sub Liam Mahy, whose looping effort from 25 yards dipped against the post and back into Devy’s arms on 63 minutes.
It was Guernsey substitute keeper Regan Penney who was by far the busiest of the two in the last few minutes, spectacularly saving from Dunne as well as showing great confidence and handling as Jersey made all the running.
The only black spot on the visitors’ day came when Le Saint, already booked, decided to block a late free-kick to Guernsey by their own corner flag in added time, and to his obvious chagrin, a second yellow card and a red was inevitable.
