Just three days after Tom Vaudin scored the club’s first ever goal in the Southern Combination Premier Division on his 100th appearance for the Green Lions, Sam Murray marked bringing up his own century with the winner at Seaford Town on Tuesday night.
But while GFC made it two from two on their return to Step 5, the victories could hardly be more contrasting as the 4-1 win over Wick on the pristine new surface at Victoria Park was followed by coming out on top of a battle on a pitch at The Crouch described by Kevin Gilligan, with a hint of exaggeration, as ‘like concrete’ with ‘seven feet of slope’.
‘It was a helluva battle, it reminded me of a trip to Alderney or something like that,’ said the GFC coach, who took charge of the side for the evening with manager Tony Vance listening to the commentary from back home.
‘The pitch was insane, but all credit to the players, it was a battle of character,’ added Gilligan, talking on GFC’s social media channels.
‘We probably won’t experience these conditions again this season. It wasn’t a pretty game but we matched them challenge for challenge and again Muz, the 100 man, got the winner, so fantastic.’
It took the Green Lions a while to settle in a scrappy first half with goalkeeper Seb Sheppard making a good save to deny Max Howell.
But as the match approached half-time, the visitors started to provide more of a threat and one penalty-box scramble saw Murray, Ross Allen, Seb Vance and Cal Le Lacheur all have attempts on goal thwarted.
GFC exerted their authority in the second half with Murray, Allen and Charlton Gauvain having shots before the deadlock was eventually broken with just over quarter-of-an-hour remaining.
It was Vaudin who provided the assist that put Murray through one-on-one and he finished with aplomb through goalkeeper Jack Webb’s legs.
GFC never looked like conceding in the closing stages as Seaford Town were reduced to eight men by the end of the game with Josh Bradley and Tom Shelley both shown red cards for reckless challenges, while captain Matt Simpson was sin-binned for dissent.
Webb denied substitute Will Fazakerley with a fine stop late on, but the visitors had done enough to take all three points.
‘Our game management was really good,’ Gilligan said.
‘It could have got a bit silly, but we didn’t react. I think the first tackle was a bit naughty and was a red, the second one was quite high but could have been a booking.’
The coach added that his players had stuck to the game plan well.
‘They battled and gave us a torrid time in that first half – we had to stand up and match them.
‘We thought our fitness would come through in the second half and I don’t think they had a corner in the second half so we really dominated things, and really in the first half they were only really going to score from a corner.’
Gilligan also joked that, for the second time in two games, he would take a bit of credit for inspiring someone to score on their 100th appearance.
‘We’ll need to look at the stats and see who starts in the next game,’ he said with a smile.
‘We called it at the start and said, “Muz, that’ll be you” like I did with Vauds. Vauds is claiming the assist on it – we’ll have to watch the footage back – but a great finish, I think he beat Ross to it to get it in.’
With it being an FA Cup weekend coming up, GFC are next in action when they travel to AFC Varndeanians in the league on Monday.
‘We’re not really thinking far ahead, we’re sort of getting used to this league, seeing what the opponents are going to be like, seeing what the conditions are going to be like,’ Gilligan said.
‘We’ve already got a couple more away games [coming up], but the table will start to show us who's who probably around five games in.
‘But it’s a really good group, we had 16 here today, and we’re thrilled to have six points.’
Teams
Seaford Town: Webb, Simpson, Vardy, Howell, Knight, Capon, Saunders (Ford 65), Beaconsfield (Bradley 78), Wright (Connor 65), Shelley, Lee.
Guernsey FC: Sheppard; Vaudin, Fallaize, Dodds; Arnold (Fazakerley 60), Vance, Gauvain, Allen, Wallace (Maginnis 69); Murray, Le Lacheur.
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