- Island captain hopeful of catching Guernsey cold at Footes Lane on Saturday.
- Jersey without a win against the Sarnians since 2011.
- Can Jersey regain the Muratti? Take our poll below.
JERSEY go into Saturday’s Insurance Corporation Muratti Vase final as underdogs in Guernsey, but that’s not a fact that worries captain Luke Watson.
Given the armband by a third Island manager – the previous two were Craig Culkin and Jon Welsh – the St Paul’s FC midfielder says that followers in both islands believe Guernsey will win for a fourth consecutive year due to the fact of Guernsey playing regularly in a UK league.
2014: Jersey 1-4 Guernsey
2013: Guernsey 2-1 Jersey
2012: Jersey 0-2 Guernsey
2011: Guernsey 1-1 Jersey (Jersey won 3-0 on pens)
2010: Jersey 0-1 Guernsey
Watson said: ‘To be honest I’m realistic; a lot of people won’t fancy us; a lot of people in our own Island won’t fancy us and we know we’re underdogs.
‘Guernsey are favourites but it’s a game of football and favourites sometimes have off days, so we will have to wait and see.
‘We know they’re a team that has played over 50 games together and that is going to be in their favour.
‘Everything is stacked against us and every defeat in the past few years has made us stronger as a group and even more willing to go out and get the right result for Jersey.
‘It will be hard and we may need a bit of luck and I know the lads won’t stop trying because there’s a lot of quality in the changing room and it’s about producing it on the day.’
Jersey captain Luke Watson: “Guernsey are favourites but it’s a game of football … favourites sometimes have off days”
Since the opening of the new 3G pitch at Springfield, Jersey’s squad has been able to get together a lot more than in previous seasons, so has that helped with the preparation?
‘It has helped training-wise but obviously that’s different to what Guernsey have because they have competitive and meaningful games and we don’t.
‘That will give them momentum and confidence and an understanding that showed massively last year when they were the much better team on the day.
‘Every year that goes by without us having a games programme we are going to fall further and further behind, but we won’t use it as an excuse. We know what we are up against, Guernsey are going to be a solid team with a great understanding.
‘We are going to have to turn out eleven players that are on their game and we’ll see where that takes us.
‘There’s a chance that Guernsey may need to have an off day and Ross Allen miss a few chances but football is football and anything can happen and we are willing to take the chance and give everything we’ve got to try and bring the trophy home.’
So how do you stop the prolific Ross Allen from scoring goals?
Watson added: ‘Ross is a fantastic player, he is one of the best players I’ve played against and I don’t know what the secret is and maybe that’s a question for defenders Stuart André and Luke Campbell to answer.
‘It’s not just Ross either; there are other decent players around him and those are the lads that provide the service to him. One of our big problems is stopping Ross and hopefully we can do that on Saturday.’
Jersey conceded early goals in their last two defeats against Guernsey and that is something they will be looking to avoid this time out.
Watson said: ‘One of our objectives will be not to concede an early goal while looking to take the game to Guernsey.
‘We will give Guernsey the respect they deserve and at the same time we’ll have a good go at them and see where that takes us.
‘Sitting back won’t help us because they’ve got the quality but we’ve got players in our changing room as well that can hurt going the other way and we’ll be looking to do that from the start.’
