The visitors began the day one point off last place and ended it rock bottom on goal difference, thanks to a draw for Horsham YM, and expectations among the home crowd of 665, after three successive wins, were for a comfortable victory.
So a goal for the men in burgundy in the first minute was taken to be a minor inconvenience, especially as the pass over the Guernsey back line into the path of Commoners striker Sam Ellis had more than a suspicion of offside about it. His emphatic and accurate strike gave Seb Sheppard little chance, but that was to be as good as it got for the East Sussex side.
The response from Tony Vance’s men was swift and assured, and produced an equaliser just three minutes later when a long ball forward was flicked on by Will Fazakerley into the path of a swift-heeled Fin du Port, whose calm lob over visiting keeper Matt Cruttwell restored parity.
For the remainder of the first half, Guernsey unleashed a succession of long diagonal balls – chiefly from captain Jacob Fallaize – which kept Fin Patterson in particular very busy. His skill in controlling these aerial balls and sending crosses into the danger area from the right was the home side’s principal threat, and Patterson himself had the ball in the net halfway through the first period when he first fed Fazakerley and then pounced on the loose ball when the striker’s shot from 10 yards was blocked. However, the offside flag was raised and the scores stayed level.
A header narrowly wide from du Port, a scuffed shot from Brandon Wallace and a good save from Cruttwell to deny Sam Murray, kept the score at 1-1 at half-time – but on 46 minutes' worth of evidence it was hard to see any result other than a home win.
The first long diagonal of the second half, from Fallaize to Patterson, was about five seconds in, so it was very much a case of keeping the faith and trusting that the previous dominance would eventually translate into three points.
That century of Victoria Park league goals was chalked up six minutes into the second half, when Fazakerley expertly chested down a ball into the box with his back to goal before swivelling to strike a low and fierce shot to Cruttwell’s left. The visiting keeper got a hand to it, only to see the ball spin away onto the post where it bounced invitingly on the line. Drillot was the man in the right place to tap it in for his second goal for the club.
Fazakerley, Fallaize and substitutes George Goubert and Ross Allen all went close to scoring a third but the scoreline remained stubbornly narrow at 2-1.
Even after such a one-sided display, you can normally count on a frenzied last five minutes when an equaliser is in the offing, but even when a couple of rash challenges from Ben Solway presented Little Common with some presentable set-piece opportunities late on, they were unable to test Sheppard, allowing Guernsey to negotiate four added minutes with some ease.
‘It was a hard watch, second half,’ said Vance. ‘I thought we were pretty comfortable in the first half. Obviously that first goal was a bad start – I thought it was offside – but the lads showed good character to get ourselves in front. If you break the game down, we had a lot of chances to score – a lot of final-third box entries – but the finishing wasn’t quite good enough or their goalkeeper made some good saves.’
He described his side’s defensive performance towards the end of the match as ‘a bit loose’, picking out Solway as ‘a bit erratic with his fouls at the end’.
‘That could cost us, so he needs to stop that,’ he said.
‘Apart from that, I don’t think Shep had a save to make but it’s always nervy at 2-1 or 1-0. We deserved to win but we didn’t quite get it right in front of goal due to our poor options and finishing and some good saves. But luckily Faz had some quality there and Archie followed it up.’
The win extended the Green Lions’ run to four successive victories but that run will be sorely tested as they next play on Saturday away to Haywards Heath Town. The league leaders are currently nine points ahead of Guernsey, having played a game more, and will have had a chance to extend that gap further by the time the two sides meet, as they first host Pagham tomorrow night.
