RAF required Lions to test them fully
CLUNKY, disjointed and downright deflating.
That’s one way to describe Guernsey’s 4-0 home defeat by a good RAF side at Footes Lane, a result which perhaps gives new manager Chris Tardif more questions than answers a fortnight away from the Muratti semi-final in Alderney.
While due account must be given for the excellence of the opposition, who are favourites to win the imminent Inter-Services competition and may well have been too good for the Green Lions, it was a bad display from the home side with few, if any, players doing themselves justice.
The quick conclusion to draw is that Tardif must give as many GFC regulars as possible the nod against Alderney, very largely on the grounds of player and tactical familiarity.
But, of course, one suspects that Tardif wants to stamp his own style and ideas on the Island team, just as Kevin Graham did in his short tenure a few years back.
Graham was a disciple and devout believer of 4-4-2 and it will be interesting to know whether the new man follows suit against Alderney and, presumably, Jersey.
Alderney will have nowhere near the pace and power of the airmen, for whom left-back Lewis Brownhill, the brother of Bristol City midfielder Josh, caught the eye, but the worry is that post-Allen there is a distinctly blunt edge to the home attack.
n HORSE racing will happen again at L’Ancresse this May, weather permitting of course.
Sufficient funds have been raised to give the event the green light and although two of the five races remain unsponsored, the club kitties have been replenished to allow the always-popular annual meeting to be placed on the calendar of CI and UK owners and trainers.
And highly encouraging, too, is the fact that the number of CI-trained horses has risen significantly, which suggests more entries for the Guernsey meeting, which will again have the £5,000 Ravenscroft trophy race as its centrepiece.
The new CI champion trainer Christ Gilbert now has a team of nine horses to campaign, but numerically, the biggest team will be based right next to Les
Landes with 13-time champion trainer Aly Malzard reporting that she has some exciting new horses to join returning favourites such as Bowl Imperior, Country Blue, Fourni and Pas d’Action, owned by Guernsey’s very own Jim Jamouneau of course.
