Jardim's moment of magic lights up opening night

The Vale Rec striker has already set a very high standard in the goal of the season stakes thanks to a sensational opener that broke the deadlock five minutes before the interval at the Corbet Field on Friday.

It was a moment of magic out of nothing with Rec still trying to get a foothold in the game against a young Rangers side who were looking the more assured up until Jardim was given a bit of space 25 yards out and proceeded to hit an unstoppable shot that flew into the goal’s stanchion via the underside of the bar. The fact that the ball did not hit the net made it all the more spectacular.

He then set up the second after the break with a terrific assist for Jacob Masterton-Pipet to double the lead before making the game safe with his second and Rec’s third on 52min.

‘We probably didn’t deserve it when he did score the first one, but if he’s meant to do that, it’s absolutely superb,’ said a laughing Vale coach Mark Romeril after the 3-0 win.

‘He has been good all pre-season, we know how good Marlon can be, we said during the Rawlinson games he’s been looking sharp and it’s another good performance from him – he’s the difference really.’

It was a victory the home side’s second-half performance merited, but by Romeril’s own admission, Rec were ‘off it’ in the opening 45 minutes barring that cracking goal.

Rangers always seemed to have the extra man and knocked the ball around well at times, although the couple of times they came close to scoring were caused by Rec mistakes with Christian Povall saving from Zac Batiste in the 10th minute after an under-hit pass gifted the ball to the youngster, while the Rec keeper had to scramble to make a goal-line clearance from a misplaced backpass later in the half.

Despite Jardim’s cracking strike, Romeril was happy to get his side in at half-time to make a tactical switch and it paid immediate dividends with two further goals in seven minutes.

Jardim created the first of those with his mazy run and lay-off finished off by Masterton-Pipet who ran onto the ball and slotted home.

The No 9 then broke away from halfway on a counter-attack and tucked the chance away with aplomb to wrap up the three points.

On Saturday, Rovers started their title defence with a come-from-behind 3-2 win away to Sylvans, North beat St Martin's 4-2 and Bels overcame Alderney 2-0.

• Match reports in Monday's Guernsey Press.