A REMARKABLE week of local Combination football saw red cards, stunning comebacks and cup knock-out drama.
Going back to last Thursday, the semi-final of The Dog Club Challenge Cup took place between Trinity and St John Reserves at Les Quennevais.
Trinity took a 2-1 lead into half-time, but it was then that the match exploded into life.
The game ended up going into extra time and, despite being reduced to ten men after Marco Alexandre Guimaraes Vidal’s red card, Trinity came out 6-4 winners.
Vidal himself netted before his dismissal on the hour, alongside goals from Layton Tucker, Malcolm Nkhoma, Harry Henderson, Hayden Bailey and the impressive teenager Riley Brennan.
Striker Jack Guille bagged a brace for St John, with Stephen McDonald also scoring and Thomas Mollet netting an excellent free-kick.
Trinity make it through to the final, where they will face the winner of St Ouen’s C and Sporting Academics Reserves.
On Saturday, Premiership 1 action saw the struggling St Peter secure their first league win of the season in a thrilling 3-2 comeback win at home over Sporting Academics.
James Walsh and Diogo Franca scored for the visitors to give them a 2-1 lead at half-time, despite an early straight red card for Sporting’s Kealan Wade.
However, the Crosskeys fought back with goals from Kevin Camacho, Bradley Russell and Matthew Riley to take a 3-2 lead.
A second red card followed for Accies, with Adriano Pereira receiving a second yellow, and St Peter finally recording a win from their tenth league game of the season.
Defending champions St Clement took advantage of a game in hand to close the gap to one point on league leaders Grouville, with a solid 2-0 home win over Madeira.
Darren Coyle and Bruno Da Silva were on target for the Anchors.
St Paul’s made a statement with an outstanding 6-1 home win over St Brelade, leapfrogging them in the table up to third in the process.
It was a day for the youngsters, as all seven goals were scored by members of the Jersey U18 squad that faced Northern Ireland Schoolboys on Tuesday.
Conor O’Keefe netted a brilliant hat-trick for the home side, alongside Joey O’Toole, Sonny Cassidy and Callum Gilroy.
Will Yates was the lone scorer for The Fish.
Premiership 2 action saw the unstoppable table-topping St John’s side seal their seventh consecutive win, sweeping aside Sports Club of Jersey 6-1 at home.
Ethan Boudin was the star of the day, scoring a superb hat-trick, ably supported by goals from Carl Duncan, Jay Newton and tricky winger Christian De Oliveira.
Elsewhere, on Tuesday night, the rescheduled fixture between St Ouen’s First and Dragoes de Jersey resumed after the initial clash was abandoned due to ill-discipline which resulted in three late red cards for Dragoes after a late Jake Prince-inspired St Ouen’s comeback.
This clash, however, was firmly one-sided, as the westerners ran out comfortable 6-0 winners thanks to goals from Jay Curtis, Evan Nobes, Simao Oliveira, an own goal and a double from Elliott Hughes.
Arguably the wildest result of the week came in Championship 1, as runaway leaders St Ouen’s Reserves battered bottom side St Peter Reserves by a ridiculous 13-0 scoreline to move 11 points clear.
To make the statistics even more bizarre, six different members of the still-undefeated St Ouen’s side netted doubles, in Shane Carre, Ben Cesar, Josh Lamy-Coudrais, Oliver Carney, Maximilian Simon and Kacper Smilek, with Evan Nobes netting the 13th.
Championship 2 action saw Trinity land a much-needed win away from home over Sporting Academics Reserves.
The excellent Riley Brennan was on target again for Trinity, alongside Bryan Kiama, Malcolm Nkhoma and Layton Tucker.
Pars Yuksel and Chidi Kalu were the scorers for Accies Reserves.
Saturday’s final game was a JFA Bowl quarter final clash between Grouville Reserves and St Ouen.
The westerners found themselves 1-0 up after just five minutes thanks to Tom Murray.
However, following on from their 9-0 win in the previous round over St Lawrence, Grouville Reserves fought back superbly thanks to an outstanding Andre Nunes hat-trick to seal a 3-1 win and advance to the semi-finals.
On Sunday, the Women’s Division provided two fixtures that saw Jersey Wanderers beat Rozel Rovers and Sports Club of Jersey receive a home walkover win over St Peter for their first points of their debut campaign.
Rozel Rovers find themselves in an unfamiliar position at second in the division, with Sarnian side Guernsey FC dominating proceedings with eight wins from eight in their inaugural season in the league.
However, Rozel were undone by an excellent performance from Wanderers, who secured a solid 2-0 win.
Ella Brennand opened the scoring, with Tammie Wheeler netting late on to move them level on points in the league, however Rozel still have two games in hand.
The Alexforbes and Hepburns Walking Football Division continues to be hotly contested.
Both undefeated sides, Trinity and Portuguese FC of Jersey, did not play, meaning a goal from Mark Oliver in a 1-0 win for St Peter over St John has jumped them up into third spot, just three points behind leaders Trinity.
Grouville remain bottom and winless after they suffered a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of St Paul’s, thanks to a hat-trick from Simon Logan and a double from Paul Cauvain.
St Ouen’s beat First Tower to jump to fifth thanks to an excellent 4-0 win, with strikes from Matt Smith, Lionel Gomes, Matthew Holcroft and Daniel Craven.
