Acey wants to end his Muratti jinx at Victoria Park

Currently plying his trade at Farnborough Town in National League South, the 20-year-old Sarnian midfielder has revealed that he intentionally joined the club on non-contract terms so that he would be eligible for the Muratti Vase final on Saturday 17 May as he tries to end his own inter-insular hoodoo.

‘I’ve wanted to do that all season really,’ said Acey exclusively on this week’s Guernsey Press Football Podcast.

‘So even in January when I was speaking to new clubs, basically you can do a contract or a non-contract, and I think if you’re on a non-contract, you’re eligible to play the Muratti.

'I’m on the non-contract, so it’s definitely something I’m interested in and I want to do.

‘I’ve never won a Muratti, so maybe I shouldn’t play, but I’d love to – and I’d love to win. I’ve never played in a senior Muratti at home either. So to win my first senior Muratti – well to win my first Muratti full stop, even the age group ones I never won – and to do it at home, and to be the first one at Victoria Park, would be amazing.

‘When I went to Bristol [City] when I was 18, I’d never won a Muratti, I'd just lost three in two months, so I think I said it to my friends, I know I said it to Keene [Domaille], “I’ll come back at the end of my career to play Muratti because I need to win one”.

‘I can’t not win one, that’s embarrassing that. So obviously there’s conversations to be had and stuff, but yeah, it’d be good.’

Acey was speaking exactly a year to the day that he found out that Bristol City would not be offering him a new contract, but he emphasised that he still has the hunger to try to make it in the pro ranks.

‘At the end of the day, to be in the Football League again, all it takes up is two steps up for me, whether that be with a club or just to have a good season and get a move,’ said the former Northerner.

‘That is obviously the aim, to be in the Football League, and if I’m in the Football League at 22, say I’m playing in League Two at 22, who knows what could happen then? So I’m just trying to take it like that.

‘The way I look at it as well, I’ve sacrificed so much of my life for it, pushed so much towards it, put so much energy and effort into it, I kind of owe it to myself a bit... and I owe it to my family.

‘I know they’re not pushy, but I feel like I owe it to them just to give it the best shot I can and the drive would always be there. I do enjoy the hustle, so to speak, the grind, doing the gym work and I feel like I’m accomplishing stuff even by just doing that, the little things.

‘I do enjoy it and that is definitely the aim.’