THE final for the first trophy of the season has been set, as Jersey Wanderers and Grouville booked their place at Springfield on Tuesday to contest the Charity Cup.
A pair of action-packed semi-finals saw Grouville topple St Paul’s, while the Wanderers defeated visiting Madeira.
Chris Gill, who is embarking on his first campaign as Wanderers boss, was quietly optimistic about his side’s chances.
“I think it’s well-known that Grouville look like a very strong side,” he said.
“They’ve made some great additions to their squad and I think they are everyone’s hot tips to win the league this year.
“But we know what we are made of and we can absolutely match them.”
Madeira entered the semi-final clash confident off the back of some incredibly positive pre-season results.
Most notably, they bested the defending Charity Cup champions, St Peter, on their home turf as well as a dominant 13-0 win over St Lawrence 13-0, both in the group stage.
Wanderers were up for the challenge, however, as Gill stated: “You always know what you’re going to get against a side like [Madeira]. They play a very physical game so it’s important we got off to a good start.
“We’ve had a tendency to do the opposite recently, so it was important that we turned that around and started off on the right foot.
“We certainly did that.”
Wanderers Josh Coutanche managed to find an opening just one minute into the game, and his teammate, Arthur Illingworth, found a similar opportunity minutes later, to hand the hosts a two-goal lead early on.
Unfazed by conceding twice early, Madeira’s Diogo Velosa answered with a goal of his own at the 15-minute mark, to half the deficit.
However, the Wanderers remained focused and stuck the game beyond Madeira’s reach with two more first-half goals, one from the boot of Luke Coutanche and another by way of an own goal.
Despite the scoreline, the Portuguese side managed to steady the ship and weather theWanderers storm in the second-half.
But, with 20 minutes left, Renato Geraldo fired Gill’s Wanderers into a 5-1 lead.
Soon after, Madeira were reduced to ten men, after Kirchner Orland received a red card for violent conduct.
The short-handed Madeirans plugged away and Velosa managed to find the back of the net for the second time ten minutes from time.
Wanderers’ versatile Alex Durant claimed the man-of-the-match honours for stifling the majority of the Madeiran attacks.
Elsewhere, at St Paul’s, the young home team attempted to close down Dave Fitton’s title contenders to the best of their ability.
The easterners defeated St John 4-1 in their opening group game, before a surprise 5-0 victory against defending Premiership 1 champions St Clement.
A couple of very shrewd acquisitions have firmly placed the Groove in every team’s mind.
The power and experience of the men from Grouville proved too much for the talented young Saints, as former Jersey Bulls forward Jake Mulholland scored a brace, while new signing Logan McGee, previously of St Brelade, also netted.
Andre Nunes, who has enjoyed a strong start to the campaign, was also on target, in his side’s 4-2 victory away from home.
There were some notable performances from the hosts as 2024 U18 player of the year Callum Gilroy netted, along with Joey O’Toole.
The final is scheduled to kick off from Springfield Stadium on Tuesday, at 6.45pm.
