Jersey edged out by Reading Youth

Jersey edged out by Reading Youth

Before a disappointing crowd of just over 100, Jersey were twice denied by the woodwork as they were beaten by a goal scored from a corner when they failed to pick up Ashley Mitchell who nodded home from eight yards.

In the end it was tough on a Jersey side who had restricted the visitors, who had several players with reserve team experience, to very little on an afternoon when Jersey’s back-line of defence kept a tight rein on Reading’s forwards leaving goalkeeper Andrew Bird little to do.

Marco Vieira was denied twice in the first half, the first just minutes in when he had a shot blocked by Reading’s 6 ft 4 in goalkeeper while five minutes before the break his nifty footwork gave him an opening but from an acute angle his shot hit the far post.

Craig Leitch also had a good opportunity on 15 minutes but again Reading’s giant goalkeeper stuck out a hand to block Leitch’s header from seven yards.

Jack Boyle also nearly marked his full Island debut with a goal but his shot struck the apex of the crossbar and post 15 minutes from the end.

Reading’s best chances both fell to their second-half substitutes; Radoslav Vasilev was twice denied when Jersey’s defence got in good blocked tackles while Nicholas Bignall dragged an acute angle shot wide after being put clear by Gary Frewen.

Jersey assistant manager Pat Brennan said: ‘I thought Jersey did extremely well.

We certainly had more chances than Reading and we were unlucky hitting the woodwork twice and apart from their goal our goalkeeper had very little to do.

‘Our performance was great without the result.

We all play to win games and we were unlucky not to have taken at least a draw today.

‘The new caps all did well; everyone seems to have problems finding left backs but I thought Mark Lucas impressed and I’m sure he has done himself no harm at all to be n the reckoning for games coming up.

‘We coped really well, we worked hard and we could not have asked any more from them.

If everyone comes off the park and they’re absolutely knackered then you can’t ask anymore than that and that is what happened.’

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