Wanderers open the door

Wanderers open the door

Stuart Brown lifted the ball over the outrushing Portuguese Club goalkeeper for his second goal of the game to complete a 2-1 victory and lift Wanderers out of the second relegation place – and one point above Grouville.

Portuguese Club’s defeat leaves them looking nervously over their shoulder as they are just one point ahead of Wanderers and two ahead of Grouville, but from a game played more.

Wanderers president and joint team manager Gary Dauvin said: ‘It was a vital three points for us in our quest to stay in the division; we showed great determination and battled right to the end.

‘I think a draw would probably have been a fair result overall as we had the better of it in the opening half while Portuguese caused us problems in the second period.

‘But we kept going and scoring late now puts the pressure back on Grouville again because we have moved above them.

‘This result also brings the Portuguese into the relegation dogfight and although Rozel have three points to come as a result of Jersey Scottish playing an ineligible player, I don’t think 16 points will be enough for them either.’

Portuguese manager Kevin McCarthy said: ‘Wanderers deserved to win; they are a galvanised team since Gary Dauvin and Peter Lucas have taken over.

‘We had chances to win but we struggled to put the ball in the net.

I’ve said all along we need 20 points to stay up and I still believe that.

We have four tough games remaining and we well do our best to reach that total.’

John Rutter fired Portuguese ahead from the penalty sport shortly after the resumption following Luke Campbell’s foul on Richard Russell.

Brown equalised a few minutes latter with a low shot following good work on the edge of a penalty area by Chris Andrews.

Brown’s late goal secured Wanderers’ seventh win in ten games in all competitions leaving Portuguese with their fifth league defeat in six games.

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