Buoyed by an early goal from Charlie Johnson, the Westerners had more possession throughout and after Max Thompson doubled their advantage, St Lawrence responded well but in the end they only had a wonderful strike from Kyle Rea to show for their efforts.
St Lawrence 1
K Rea 73
St Brelade 2
Johnson 9, M Thompson 63
| St Lawrence | St Brelade | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Shots | 14 |
| 3 | On target | 4 |
| 3 | Corners | 9 |
| 4 | Fouls | 15 |
| 3 | Yellows | 3 |
St Brelade’s success helped them become the first parish to retain the Shield since St Saviour in 2005 and it was a victory that delighted team captain Johnson.
The central defender, who nodded danger clear on several occasions, said: ‘It was a rare goal for myself; it’s always nice to get on the score sheet and it set us on our way.
‘I just got in front of my marker; I think he switched off for a second or two and it was a great ball by Jonny Le Quesne. I was happy to be there to finish it off for the team.
‘Conditions weren’t fantastic, but it’s a brilliant surface so you are still able to play football.
‘The wind did come into play, particularly in the second half when we got caught with their goal with the wind taking the ball into the goal and as a result it put us on the back foot for quite a bit.
‘I thought we played some nice football, we have done so throughout this competition and hopefully we will be able to carry that on in future years.
St Lawrence manager Peter Flambard said: ‘I think playing 120 minutes in a tough semi-final and on a heavy pitch at Les Quennevais on Wednesday took it out of us a little today.
‘Quite a few of our lads that started have not been playing regularly this season either, but I don’t want to be making any excuses because we were a bit flat and we did not create the chances that we created in our previous games.
‘We gave away the first goal and that made it an uphill battle, but full credit to St Brelade; they took their chances well. Credit to my boys too for their effort but unfortunately we came up a bit short.’
St Brelade, backed by the strong wind kicking towards the Robin Hood end, spread the ball well in the early stages with Jonny Le Quesne and Max Thompson intercepting many balls as St Lawrence looked to play long into the teeth of the wind.
St Lawrence: Jason Watts; Carl McConnell (Y), Dan Huelin, Anthony Norman, Jay Newton (Michael Norman, 58); Kyle Rea (Y), Ross Crick, Sean Doran (Y, Tim De Luca, 66), Jordan Rea; Rupert Murray, Phil Helleur (Ben Burton, 81).
St Brelade: Euan van der Vliet; Seb Poole, James Quérée, Charlie Johnson (Y), Kieran Quérée; Ollie Thompson (Jonny Willows, 90), Jonny Le Quesne, Max Thompson, Jean-Paul Martyn (Harry Cardwell, 57); James Carolan (Francis Lekimamati, 69), Fraser Barlow.
Officials: Dougie Orr, Mark Le Cornu, José Restolho and Peter Smith.
Johnson scored the opener by hitting the roof of the net from six yards after connecting with his left foot from Le Quesne’s in-swinging corner kick.
Euan van der Vliet made a fine parried save to his left from Rupert Murray after an excellent turn by the striker.
St Brelade were seeing more of the ball and Fraser Barlow was a threat down their left. After colleague Ollie Thompson whistled a low effort past a post, Barlow homed in on goal only for Anthony Norman to make a fine blocked challenge.
James Carolan had a great chance to make it 2-0 but he ballooned his effort out of the ground with the ball bouncing on top of a car driving through the Robin Hood gyratory system.
St Lawrence worked extremely hard collectively to protect their goal as St Brelade pressed but there was no threat to goalkeeper Jason Watts who was well-protected by Norman and Dan Huelin.
Barlow, Thompson and James Quérée all failed to hit the target before Max Thompson broke free and, homing in on goal, he showed great composure to lift the ball over the advancing Watts to put St Brelade 2-0 ahead.
St Lawrence were then much improved as an attacking unit and they pulled a goal back when Kyle Rea’s speculative wind-assisted effort from 30 yards, from the right, flew into the goal over the back-pedalling van der Vliet.
Ross Crick almost forced extra time but his effort on the turn was just wide while Watts made a brave save at the feet of Le Quesne to prevent St adding a third goal.
