And while thousands of Jersey folk will be sipping aperitifs before hearty lunch-time meals, Matthews’ squad – who are on an alcohol ban while in Guernsey until the football is over – will be fully focused and attempting to open their Games account with a goals-avalanche against the group minnows.As the midday cannon fires from Castle Cornet, in St Peter Port, Jersey kick-off their campaign with Gotland and Shetland opening their accounts at the same venue following Jersey’s fixture.Jersey and Gotland will both expect to beat Froya and Shetland but if Jersey and Gotland draw then the group will be decided on goals.
So getting as many as they can is Jersey’s target.
Jersey simply have to win their group to have a chance of winning a medal of any colour.Matthews said: ‘We have to attack because the group could well be decided on goal-difference.
We’ll attack with a 4-4-2 formation, just as we did in the Muratti replay win against Guernsey.
I’m confident we can do well and open with a victory.’We have to win the first game and getting a good start will give everybody a boost.
The squad have trained and worked hard, the spirit is very good and all they want to do now is play football and do well in the tournament.’Matthews has not announced his line-up for Sunday’s opener but he did say that Dave Le Roux and Ross Crick will be partners in attack.
Utility player Chris Andrews, who is lightning quick, has also had the nod to play wide on the right-hand side of midfield where he will undoubtedly cause Froya problems with his probing runs.’The front two have played well in the two games we’ve had the past two weeks while we all know what Chris Andrews is capable of doing.
But it won’t just be about those three players – the team will all be looking to support one another.’It is very important that we start with a win.
If we get the points on the board and then watch the game after then we will know what we have to do in our next two games.’All the teams in the group are in the same boat.
Nobody knows about the other teams so no doubt the others will be up early to watch us and after our game we’ll watch them.’Matthews says he expects to play his strongest team for each game although that depends on how things progress in the group.He added: ‘I’ll assess things as we go along.
Obviously I’ll see how the other results go as well and depending on how things work out we may get the chance to rest players for later in the week.’Jersey play all their Group A matches at Northfield.
Monday and Tuesday’s games against Shetland and Froya respectively both kick-off at 4.30 pm.
