Jumping for Jeremie joy

St Clement are targeting a league and cup double at St Peter's expense Picture: ROB CURRIE

THEY took the battle for league supremacy right down to the final minutes.

Tomorrow night, they face each other again in the final of the Jeremie Cup final.

Newly-crowned JFA Combination champions St Clement go toe-to-toe with St Peter once more, following a dramatic end-of-season clash when a late Rai dos Santos equaliser sealed a first ever league title for the easterners, at St Peter’s expense.

St Peter had taken the lead in the 63rd minute through Paul McCafferty and had looked like they were going to steal the Premiership crown at the last hurdle.

In an historic season for the club, it is St Clement’s first appearance in the Jeremie final – officially known as the Albert Jeremie Trophy – a competition administered by the Guernsey FA since 1902. Meanwhile, St Peter are three-times winners (1976, 1984, 2000).

St Peter are missing key players in Mark Logue and Peter Vincenti, who are both away, while Calvin Weir is unavailable through injury. However, they are bolstered by the return of James Carr and Toby Ritzema from university.

‘I think there will be an element of wanting to prove that we can beat St Clement but they will also want to prove that the league wasn’t a one-off,’ coach Elliot Powell said.

‘They’ve had a fantastic season. Gary [Tumelty] and James [Beaumont] have done really well there and they will be looking to finish the season with the double.’

‘We’re looking forward to a cup final at Springfield but also looking forward to the break after as well.’

St Clement will be missing both Jay dos Santos and Rai dos Santos and manager Gary Tumelty says it has been a challenge to keep his team motivated since their Upton defeat three weeks ago.

‘We’ve been training for 11 months now so we are quite keen to get through the last game,’ he said.

‘We didn’t even know when this game was going to be played for some time but we’ve trained a couple of times and people are starting to get pretty keen now it’s on the horizon. I’m sure by the time kick off comes they’ll more than up for it.’

A new cup will be presented this season, following the loss of the original 15-inch silver trophy last year, when 2019 champions St Paul’s attempted to return their prize to Guernsey by courier. The Jersey club were subsequently banned from re-entering the tournament and 2021 winners St Martin’s were forced to lift the GFA’s Stranger Cup instead.

The destination of the men’s JEP Golden Boot award for 2021/22 will also be decided tomorrow night, with Grouville’s Harrison Moon and St Clement’s Dan Tostevin both in contention. Moon leads his rival by one goal ahead of the Jeremie final.

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