Combination at St Ouen last night after they beat the westerners 4-2 to go five points clear.
It was a bit of a scrappy game, to be honest, not pretty to watch – but we were pleased to get the win,’ manager Ian Horswell commented.
Grouville signalled their intentions early on with a goal from Peter Hall and within 13 minutes they were 3-0 up, with goals from Ashley Garratt – his first this season – and Jason Bingham.St Ouen had their chances, but their first goal came from a penalty, from Scott Quarrell, after the linesman spotted a push on a throw-in.And it was Quarrell who made the score 3-2 just before the break.In the second half Grouville always looked the stronger, and Luc Le Mière made sure of it after sub Richard Russell was brought down just inside the penalty area.
This was the tenth consecutive game in which Le Mière has scored.St Ouen manager Steve Pallett was reasonablyupbeat, despite the scoreline.’I think we played fairly well – apart from the first ten minutes when we gave away two really sloppy goals, especially the first.
No-one was talking and we made schoolboy mistakes.
Their third goal was a decent one off a corner – though we still didn’t defend as well as we should – but to be fair we stuck at it.
Our first goal, an obvious penalty, knocked them off their stride – when they were 3-0 up it could as easily have been ten.’Rattled’Our second goal really rattled them but their penalty – which was questionable because Russell was well outside the box in my opinion – killed the game for us.’Our first 15 minutes were atrocious, but Grouville are head and shoulders above the rest in Division II.’Our best players were Andy Modral, an 18-year-old who was oustanding in midfield, and Scott who did an excellent job as well as scoring the goals.We have to win the next two games – against St Lawrence and St Martin – and it won’t be easy, but if we keep on pinching points here and there we’ll be in with a shout.’Horswell said that Grouville have some tough games before the New Year.
‘We have a lot of new players in the squad and it takes time to get a team together that gels, we’re still trying to find our best 11.’Cautions: St Ouen – Ross Marquis, Scott Quarrell, Craig Farley.
Grouville – Luc Le Mière.
