Islanders off to good start

England, represented by the Guernsey County Senior League, made a good start to their UEFA Regions Cup campaign against the hosts Croatia, represented by the Dalmatian Region, in Split yesterday afternoon as the island team’s historic European campaign began with a 1-1 with the Croatian Amateur Champions.

The English side enjoyed the majority of the vocal support in the impressive Dugopolje Stadium with around half of the crowd having made the journey from Guernsey. 

However, it was the home side that took the lead on 14 minutes through the impressive Stijepo Njire.  The Islanders were soon level through a stunning Ross Allen half-volley four minutes later though. 

Although Allen’s goal got the campaign off to an unbeaten start, it was Ben Coulter who was the star of the show, rewarding Vance’s faith to bring him back into the starting line-up after injury with a tireless display in the centre of the park.  Alongside him, Matt Warren also played his part in a game where the Islanders were slightly the better side, but had to put up with some shameful Croatian play acting which went largely unpunished by the Polish referee, Tomasz Milkuski, who did show five yellow cards, with two going to Warren and Simon Tostevin.

Following the game, team manager Tony Vance said: "It was nail-biting, a great performance from us, although we had to dig in at times. 

"I'm generally pleased with a draw to be fair. There were a few mistakes in pressurised situations, but I guess that's natural and that's what we're learning about really."

Guernsey's next match is against Welsh Champions, Gwent County, on Sunday.  They crashed 4-1 to their Turkish counterparts Ankara in their opening match. Looking ahead to their next two games Vance added: "It's a decent start, you didn't want to lose your first game and we haven't done that so that's good. 

“Obviously we've got to go and win some games now, the Welsh game is very, very important. It's about getting a couple of results under our belt so that's what we're going to do."

Squad

Thomas Le Tissier (Guernsey Rangers FC), Joby Bourgaize (Belgrave Wanderers FC), Jamie Dodd (St Martins AC), Sam Cochrane  (Belgrave Wanderers), Thomas Strawbridge (St Martins AC), Jacques Isabelle (Guernsey Rangers FC), Glyn Dyer (St Martins AC), Matthew Warren (St Martins AC), Craig Young (Belgrave Wanderers), Ross Allen (Guernsey Rangers FC), Scott Bradford (Belgrave Wanderers), Matthew Drillott (Belgrave Wanderers), Richard Davey (Guernsey Rangers FC), Oliver McKenzie (Northerners AC), Dominic Heaume (St Martins AC), Simon Tostevin (Northerners AC), Ben Coulter (St Martins AC), Alex Le Prevost (Northerners AC).