Two headed goals from Jamie Dodd and one each for Fin Patterson, Fin Du Port, Cal Le Lacheur, Charlton Gauvain and Will Fazakerley powered the Green Lions to a 7-3 win at Victoria Park, and yet it never seemed like a mauling.
Indeed, there was plenty of concern in the 1,017 crowd as 4-1 up at the interval against 10 men somehow morphed into 4-3 with 20 minutes to go.
‘I didn’t enjoy it, if I’m honest,’ said Tony Vance.
‘Without being disrespectful to the opposition, we made an easy opportunity look quite hard. Even when we went 2-0 up, we were sloppy and gave away a poor goal for 2-1.
‘Going forward we could’ve scored a hatful of goals – their goalkeeper made a load of saves – so it should have been out of sight.’
Vance explained that he had shown the players footage at half-time of precisely what he thought his team’s vulnerability was, only to see it exploited twice in the first quarter-hour after the resumption, as opposition strikers found themselves played into ample space with easy opportunities to lob keeper Seb Sheppard from distance.
‘You hear the crowd shouting at the goalkeeper to get back on his line, but it’s not that,’ Vance said.
‘We play a very high line in their half and get bodies overloaded, so that if an attack breaks down, we’ve got bodies in there to stop it getting any further but we weren’t doing that. Then our last line of defence has got to be locked on tight and we weren’t doing that either. The goalkeeper is then our final sweeper cover and it’s relatively new to Seb but I don’t blame him at all – it’s further forward where we haven’t done our jobs.’
Guernsey – now with 60 points from 26 games – remain third, while Steyning Town took advantage of Haywards Heath being involved in the FA Vase to claim the top spot on 68 points from 28 matches.
Full match report in today’s paper and digital edition.
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