Two goals from Ross Allen and one from Charlton Gauvain gave the Greens a fully deserved 3-1 victory over Jersey in the Saturday sunshine as Dave Merris and his men delivered brilliantly on the big occasion in front of a crowd of 3,019.
All the goals came in the first half with the first two inside the opening 10 minutes as Guernsey took control of the game from the outset and never relinquished their hold on it, even after Karl Hinds reduced the Jersey deficit for 10 minutes midway through the half.
The home side could have added to their tally, too, but did more than enough on a day when the Reds ended with 10 men as their skipper Luke Campbell was sent off for two bookable offences.
Listen our Muratti review podcast
‘Words can’t describe it,’ said man-of-the-match Allen after being the first Guernsey captain to lift the Muratti Vase in eight years.
‘It’s one thing you picture it, obviously you dream about it, but to get it done, get over the line, it’s credit to the boys, the coaches and how focused we were.
‘That was the main thing. We knew it was going to be a bumper crowd, a crazy occasion, the first one down here, but playing a few games for GFC and even the Saints boys have played a few games down here, so everyone was kind of used to it.
‘I said what was really important was we were positive and we take the game to them, which we obviously did early on getting those key goals. But once we got into those four white lines, it was professional attitude, focus on the job at hand, take the energy from the crowd and channel it.
‘It was all vivid, in HD, today but I can’t remember it being this relaxed, this calm about a Muratti performance from everyone. I felt really good today – just delighted.
‘Everyone deserves it and we're so thankful to the fans for making it such a fantastic occasion, especially with the women winning as well this morning.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.