The 5-1 victory over Froya was completed with excellent individual efforts from Dave Le Roux and skipper Bradley Vowden, but with goal-difference a possible decider in the group, Jersey may still rue a handful of very good chances squandered.For Jersey’s management team of Dave Matthews and Jon Trigg it was a win and three points.
Froya, who are supposed to be the whipping boys in the group, gave a fine account of themselves and they could easily have crossed over at 2-2 rather than 2-0 behind.They were spurred on in midfield by the excellent Ove Skarpnes, a former Norwegian Division I player, who set up Trono Bekken to shoot just wide of Jersey’s goal before himself crashing the ball against Jersey’s woodwork.After the break Skarpnes forced a two-fisted punch out of Jersey goalkeeper Jamie Brewster and Skarpnes was inches away from finding a top corner with a curling free kick out on Jersey’s right.Froya finally got the goal they deserved, substitute Ove Espnes capitalising from close range after Brewster lost possession after blocking a shot.Jersey manager Dave Matthews said: ‘It’s the start we wanted, a win.
We went out with a game plan to hit our front two for the first 20 minutes.
They are quick and it paid off for us.
We got a goal and it settled us, allowing us to then play our passing game.’Froya had a good spell just before the break and we could well have gone in just 2-1 ahead.
I had a stern word at half-time and the players responded well to it.
We had too much time on the ball and after three or four passes we were giving the ball away too often.
It improved in the second half before we conceded a sloppy goal and I’m sure Jamie will accept it was his mistake.’Matthews was delighted with his team’s overall commitment, adding: ‘There were many good performance, but Lee Bradshaw was my man-of-the-match.
He made one brilliant clearance off the goal-line at the finish and it capped an outstanding performance for him.’Unselfish play from Chris Andrews set up Crick to shoot Jersey ahead in the 11th minute.
Paul Duxbury and Jon Fitzmaurice put in some excellent crosses, but Froya’s defence remained solid.
David Le Roux, who worked hard in attack, finished off a good run across the top of the penalty area with a crisp low drive to double Jersey’s lead on 32 minutes.
It was an early birthday present for Le Roux, who is 23 today.Chances went astray for both teams before Duxbury won a penalty which Crick tucked away low into a corner, and in the 74th minute he turned on the spot to wrong-foot his marker and complete his hat-trick off the inside of a post from 20 yards.Three minutes from the end Vowden ran 30 yards at Froya’s tiring defence to slot home Jersey’s fifth, again low into a corner.Jersey: Jamie Brewster; Chris McNabb, James Hayward, Lee Bradshaw, Jon Fitzmaurice (Martin Paton, 66); Chris Andrews, Bradley Vowden, Mark Ray (Neil Cabot, 69), Paul Duxbury; Ross Crick, David Le Roux (Chris Carter, 74).And just a couple of hours later four quality goals got Jersey’s ladies off to a winning start at Victoria Avenue yesterday afternoon, and had the framework of the goal and a several blocked challenges not denied them they could easily have doubled their 4-1 winning margin against the Isle of Wight.Jersey beat the Isle of Wight 4-0 after a goal-less first half in the Isle of Man two years ago, but yesterday it was a different story as they had the best possible start with a goal inside five minutes.Suzanne Rosser, who worked tirelessly in attack with Jodie Botterill, whipped in a corner and with goalkeeper Angela Tatchell failing to get to the ball, Beckie Darts drove it home through a sea of legs on the rebound after her first effort was blocked.Nina Woods was working well in the centre of midfield and restricting the Isle of Wight to very little it was only a matter of time before Jersey broke through again.
Sarah Armstrong thought she had, but her header came back off the crossbar.Botterill was causing problems with her pace and a fine cross into the penalty area just failed to find the unmarked Rosser.Jersey finally got their reward for some more tidy play when Woods found the top corner with a brilliant strike.
When the ball hit the target she rightly praised Rosser after the striker held the ball up well before laying the ball off into Woods’ path.Two minutes before the break Woods was denied her second and Jersey’s third when she unleashed another fine strike, only to be denied by the crossbar.Kerry Sauvage cleared the ball off Jersey’s goal-line from a corner before Jersey netted a third following the best move of the game.
Nicki Warren, Botterill and Rosser were all involved before Sauvage lobbed Tatchell with great aplomb for Jersey’s third.The Isle of Wight pulled a goal back when Jersey goalkeeper Helen Lagadu misjudged the bounce of the ball.
Lagadu first pushed the ball up in the air and when it came down behind her was unlucky to then push it into her own goal.Botterill went close twice before it was third time lucky with a low shot into a bottom corner after a Sauvage pass had put her in the clear.The substitutes combined well towards the end but the ladies just missed out matching the men’s opening score of 5-1 when Lynette Le Gresley dragged a shot narrowly wide after Sarah Gavey had put her through.Jersey manager Mo Matthews said: ‘We know that to get anywhere in this competition we have to win our first two games, and that’s one out of the way.
We scored some smashing goals and a lot of things we do on the training pitch, like pass and move, came out in our goals today and that was very pleasing.’We looked solid at the back too.
We made a mistake for the goal, but we recovered well to go on and score a couple more.’Jersey: Helen Lagadu; Marie Rolland, Katie Ridley, Kirstin Buttle; Nicki Warren, Sarah Armstrong (Sarah Gavey, 74), Nina Woods, Beckie Darts, Kerry Sauvage (Karen Caygill, 78); Jodie Botterill (Lynette Le Gresley, 74), Suzanne Rosser.
