Island Games: 'Rhodes rage' revisited

One immediately sprang to mind as arguably one of the best headlines to adorn the front page of the newspaper.

It simply read, ‘Rhodes rage’.

To the thousands at the Corbet Field the previous evening, it was one of the most memorable football matches they will ever have seen.

Such were the extraordinary scenes as five of the Rhodes side were sent off against the home island in their key group fixture as ‘the friendly Games turned ugly’ that even those of us who were on reporting duty at other Island Games venues were getting phone calls about it – and this was long before social media, in the days when having a mobile phone was still a novelty rather than a necessity.

• Listen: Matt Warren and Tony Vance shared their memories of twenty years ago on our Guernsey 2023 football preview podcast

Due to the amount of red cards, the game was abandoned and it was the last time Rhodes played in the tournament, with Guernsey going on to win gold on home soil.

Almost exactly 20 years on, two of the key players in that Guernsey squad, Matt Warren and Tony Vance shared their recollections of that tournament – and that match in particular – for the Guernsey Press Football Podcast Island Games special, but the passage of time has not diminished their bewilderment at what happened.

They already had an idea of what was to come following their clash with the same opponents at the Gotland 1999 Games.

Tony Vance: ‘I remember that game vividly actually, because I got picked on in that game as well.'

‘Myself and Grant Chalmers, we were subjected to a few instances and it was just bizarre really. '

‘I don’t know why they behaved like that, in particular to us. I don’t know if they saw us as a threat, but I wouldn’t say we were a particular threat in 1999.'

‘It was carnage... we we’re getting pinched, punched, spat at, they were doing all sorts off the ball.'

‘So that was kind of, for me, an early warning and sort of built up the expectation of the game. You kind of think that four years on, it would be a different group of people, different ethos, whatever, but it was probably quite the opposite.’

In a nutshell, Guernsey had beaten Alderney 7-1 and Orkney 10-0 in their first two group games, but knew the fixture with Rhodes would be pivotal.

Within the first six minutes two of the Greek players had been booked, but it was Rhodes who took the lead with a brilliant free-kick from Savvas Karavolas on 10min.

Seven minutes later came the first of six red cards in the game after a horrible challenge on Vance and two more sendings off followed – including Guernsey’s Ryan Tippett – before the home side equalised through Paul Nobes’ retaken penalty.

Early in the second half, Guernsey were awarded another penalty, the taking of which was delayed by Rhodes continually kicking the ball away.

Warren eventually scored from the spot, but in the immediate aftermath there was more punching and stamping, but no red cards.

Two were to come 16min. later, though, after Vance was shoved into the stand and shortly afterwards the game was abandoned when a fifth Rhodes player was sent off.

That was not the end of the story, though, as the visiting team and their supporters gathered in front of the stand, celebrating the outcome and intimidating anyone who dared to try and restrain them.

Matt Warren: ‘It was just a ridiculous game of football. There’s no better way of putting it.'

‘Wendy Toms was the referee who was most qualified, most experienced referee I think we had in the Games at the time, so the decision was that she should then have the Rhodes-Guernsey game given that it could get a bit fiery, which I don’t think actually helped – not through her refereeing ability, but I think through culturally maybe the respect that she had from Rhodes, I don’t think went in the favour of how they behaved.'

‘But it was just crazy. It’s a game we’re never going to forget. The people there, they’re not going to forget it either.'

‘It started pretty much straight from the kick-off and I remember they went 1-0 up and it was a brilliant free kick.'

‘If they actually just concentrated on playing football against us, they’d have beaten us because they were good, they were really good.'

‘But there were a couple of late challenges. I don’t know what started it all off, but I just remember various incidents during the game.'

‘I remember Tony getting pushed into the actual concrete stand at the Corbet Field. He was running at pace, which he had before all his ankle injuries, just running down the line, knocked the ball and the guy just came in and arms just straight out, just shoved him. Because of the amount of people that were there as well, it was through them into the stand.'

‘It was just mental.’

Tony Vance: ‘Because I landed in the crowd and an old lady ended up on the floor, she ended up in the hospital from it. It was horrendous.'

‘But yeah, we were kind of prepared for it a little bit. We’d spoken about it and Fal [coach Colin Fallaize], as part of his training process and plan, if you like, was gear us up for any eventuality, be it you’ve got to run, you’ve got to give everything you can, but also reactions to situations.'

‘When you’re training, he’s a master at giving decisions that are awful, can annoy you, really wind you up. He just does it on purpose just to test your mentality and he was doing that consistently during our training regime to the extent that everyone was virtually wanting to beat each other up because they were getting so wound up. Eventually it sort of clicked, if you like, and we were very prepared for that.'

‘I would fear knowing our current group the way they are, and sometimes what they have to deal with in the English football leagues, I’m not sure many of our players would stay on the pitch against Rhodes, to be honest, because of their mentality and how they are.'

‘Given our build-up to the Games and the problems we had, I think an awful lot of credit has to go to Fal for how he got the group together.'

‘We were prepared to do anything for each other, as well as keep our calm and focus in what were plainly ridiculous situations.'

‘We had the kick-off, the ball came back to me, I remember just flicking it past this guy and bang, and he’s booked within 20 seconds, sort of Vinnie Jones-like.'

‘I sort of rode the tackle, but we thought, “well, okay, here we go”. Then, 10 minutes in, they got a free kick, they are 1-0 up and we’re in trouble.'

‘You could tell in their eyes that there was something up.’

Matt Warren: ‘I think a lot of them had actually dyed their hair or they had like strips in their hair. It was like they’d psyched themselves up for this game, a bit like it was going to be like a war and that’s how they approached it.'

‘It was like WWE. It was challenges at waist height, going into you, reactions, pushing, punching, spitting, kicking.’

Tony Vance: ‘The best thing was that because they dyed their h'air blue, I think it started raining and then all the dye went in their eyes and their eyes started stinging, so that was quite funny.'

‘But they were masters at trying to manipulate situations. They’d worked out that they’d tag team players, so one person would hit someone and then somebody else would get them, then when a foul would go in they’d surround the player so the ref wouldn’t necessarily know who it was.'

‘And there were instances where sometimes you found yourself in their huddle It certainly happened to me and I know it happened to Tippy, who eventually lost it. When they get you in that huddle while you’re in there, you’re stuck in there, they’re kicking you and punching you and spitting in your face and you’re trying to get out.'

‘It was carnage.'

‘I know the poor referee got hit as well when they completely lost it.'

‘So it was an incredible game. I’d love to see the footage again, but from what I was told they took it away and used it as a Fifa training tool for referees. So I just don’t know where it is, but it would just be gold that.’

Matt Warren: ‘When she sent off their fifth player... at that point no one really knew what was going on because I don’t think anyone had really witnessed a game before in local football of five people being sent off and then what actually happens.'

‘So the fact that it was then being stopped, I think the police came down to the ground. The crowd were just flabbergasted by it all.’

Tony Vance: ‘This is quite interesting because the fact they knew this rule must mean that they’ve practised it or have been part of it before, but they knew when a certain number are off the field, the game gets abandoned. I can remember them saying one more and the game’s abandoned and they were literally trying to get sent off in the end.'

‘To a certain degree, it really, really helped our progress in the competition. We’d come off the back of a poor Muratti result and suddenly we had even more support behind us because of the way we managed to deal with it.'

‘Other sports were taking notice and funnily enough I think it did football in Guernsey a lot of favours, because in the past we’d never always been 100% accepted in the Island Games for various reasons. So I think it went a long way to gain you some respect.'

‘Despite the sort of tackles that we had to deal with, we actually didn’t play that much in the game because it was just stop-start, stop-start, so it probably saved our legs a little bit.’

An emergency meeting of the Games organisers was convened that night with the outcome being that Rhodes were ejected from the football competition and Guernsey progressed to the semi-finals.

Tony Vance: ‘I can remember going home and there was a live [Games] radio station that they had and that was going on into all hours. People phoning up, like a phone-in sort of thing, it was quite interesting. Obviously now it would be all over social media, of course.'

‘I think we had a rest day the next day, so it was dusting ourselves down and getting ready for the next challenge.’

Guernsey went on to beat the Isle of Wight 3-1 in their semi-final and capped a memorable week by winning the gold-medal match against the Isle of Man at Footes Lane, also 3-1, with Warren the hat-trick hero.

Both Warren and Vance put the Guernsey 2003 Island Games at the top of their playing careers.