Jersey gave a good account of themselves in the first half but then, after taking the lead through Paul Duxbury and seeing the Isle of Man down to ten men when Rob Sorby was sent off after two yellow cards, they fell away badly to lose to two well-taken goals.Full credit should go to the Manxmen, who are coached by former LM Jersey Northerners manager Paul Truman, as they stifled Jersey’s attack after they took the lead to reach their first Games final.Jersey led following a fine goal in the 48th minute.
Dave Le Roux’s good run ended with a fine cross and Paul Duxbury nipped ahead of his marker to stoop low and head home from close range.Minutes earlier Jersey’s goal escaped as an overhead kick came back into play off their woodwork, but on the hour the Manxmen levelled when Peter Langridge was left unmarked on a far post.
Chris Bass broke Jersey’s resistance when he found space in Jersey’s stretched defence to nod home what proved to be the winning goal.Jersey manager Dave Matthews said: ‘It was 45 minutes of stupidity from us.
We were playing well and scored and then we went to pieces.
The basics went out of the window after that and we just didn’t play.
I feel sorry for the lads; they’re a young bunch and it will hurt them to have lost.
They’re just about to grow up and now we’ll see what they are made of in their final game.’Coach Jon Trigg said: ‘We’ll learn from this and fortunately we get another chance of gaining a medal.
The lads have been excellent and I’m disappointed.
I believe they are worthy of a higher finishing position.’We didn’t deserve to win, the Isle of Man did and they are worthy finalists.
We brought a young squad with a view to developing them.
They’re learning quickly and I’ll be extremely disappointed if they go home without a medal.’Jersey survived a lively Isle of Man start when goalkeeper Jimmy Styles made an excellent one-handed save.
Jersey then created chances but two were blocked, two missed from close in and another tipped over.After Duxbury’s goal Jersey failed to create another opportunity and they were left rueing their first defeat in the tournament and manager Matthews’ first defeat in eight games since taking charge.Jersey: Jimmy Styles; Chris McNabb, Lee Bradshaw, James Hayward, Martin Paton (Chris Carter, 67); Chris Andrews, Mark Ray (Neil Cabot, 85), Bradley Vowden, Paul Duxbury; Ross Crick, Dave Le Roux.
