Saints play Jersey Combination Premiership champions Grouville at Victoria Park in tonight’s final and coach Leon Meakin emphasised the importance of such clashes with top Caesarean clubs with silverware on the line.
‘It’s an inter-island competition and we will be playing at a different ground, so there is a lot for us to look forward to and a lot to play for,’ he said.
‘Inter-island cups, that’s the benchmark, that’s what we want to be playing and challenging in, it would be great to pick up trophies in these competitions.’
Grouville – who have already won the league and will play St Martin’s in the Upton next month – have also had a successful season in the Premiership, having won 10 of their 13 league games so far, drawing two and losing just one. When the two sides met in the Wheway Cup earlier this season, Grouville edged it.
‘It will be tough, we played them in the Wheway and they beat us 2-1, but I think we are fairly well matched so it will be a good game,’ said Meakin.
St Martin’s will be without Jake Lowe and Callum Scott tonight as they are both out with what Meakin described as ‘mid to long-term injuries’, but the coach is confident in his resources.
‘We have a big, strong squad which we will narrow down to 16 and I’m confident we will put out a good team,’ he said.
Their Jeremie Cup final comes off the back of a 3-1 defeat at home over the weekend to Sylvans. Euan Melrose scored a hat-trick for Sylvans, before Tito Guimaraes pulled one back for Saints in the 90th minute.
‘Sylvans played very well,’ said Meakin.
‘For us it was dead rubber, so it’s nice now to have the league out of the way so we can focus on the cups more now.
‘These games are more meaningful for us at this point so I don’t worry much about that result.’
The first Jeremie Cup final to be played at Victoria Park kicks off at 7.30pm today.
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