Goals: du Port 4′; Drillot 52′ – Ellis 1′

Guernsey were far more dominant than the scoreline suggests as they made it four wins in a row against Little Common at Victoria Park on Saturday afternoon.

Having recovered from a nightmare start to get swiftly level, the Green Lions should have been out of sight at half time but the spoils were still shared thanks to a mixture of wasteful finishing and good goalkeeping by Little Common’s Matt Cruttwell.

Archie Drillot’s close-range finish early in the second half didn’t open the floodgates as Tony Vance would have hoped but his side never looked like being punished for not being at their sharpest in front of goal.

It couldn’t have started any worse as the defence fell asleep then waited for an offside flag that never came for a ball clipped in behind them, allowing Sam Ellis to run through and knock it past Sheppard.

But the early setback shook the Green Lions into action as the hosts moved up the left flank, a high ball in towards Will Fazakerley was flicked on for the overlapping Fin du Port and he calmly lobbed the ball over Cruttwell.

Fin Patterson was a terror for Little Common left-back Rory Salter all half, first skinning his man when latching onto a lovely ball down the line from Jacob Fallaize. Fazakerley was tackled as he shaped to shoot but the ball fell back to Patterson, whose shot was beaten behind by Cruttwell. A Jacques Cauvin shot from the edge of the box from the resulting corner was straight at the midriff of the Little Common keeper. Cauvin also didn’t manage to keep his shot down at the far post after a wicked delivery from his fellow full-back Ben Solway.

Patterson thought he had put his side in front as his initial pullback was blocked and he seized on the loose ball to lash the ball into the roof of the net, but the offside flag was quickly up.

Seb Vance headed then headed down a poor clearance and it sat up nicely for Fazakerley to take it early on the volley. Cruttwell spilled it but smothered it just before Sam Murray could follow up. Murray then forced his way into the box and was initially blocked off and then missed the ball as he took a second swipe at it.

Patterson teed up Fazakerley for a high cross towards the far post. The wind made it awkward for Cruttwell, but also du Port, who headed it wide just before the half-hour.

Moments later, the wind caught the Guernsey defence out, which presented Kenny Pogue with a rare chance, but he fired wide.

Patterson did well to keep a switch from the left wing in play on the byline, but the pullback was scruffed wide by Wallace with his weaker foot.

The Greens were left wondering how they didn’t go in at the break in front. Moments before the whistle, they worked ball into the box from a free kick. It was pulled back to Murray, who was right in front of goal but Cruttwell smothered the shot.

Guernsey did deservedly get in front after 51 minutes as they put pressure on the Little Common box with the ball falling to Fazakerley. He took the ball down, swerved and shot, the power too much for Cruttwell. The ball span towards the corner and hit the far post but Archie Drillot had followed it in and was there to force the ball over the line.

Fazakerley tried to go one better on the hour as the space opened up for him 25 yards out, but his low effort zipped past the far post.

From a corner, the ball dropped into the path of Fallaize, who put his laces through it but sent it whistling just over.

A double change in the wide areas kept the visiting full-backs busy. A deflection on substitute George Goubert’s shot from the angle almost left it creeping in at the near post but Cruttwell sprawled to push it wide.

A good sliding challenge from Murray presented substitute Ross Allen with a chance to lob Cruttwell, but the ball didn’t quite drop in time as it dipped towards goal.

A rare opening for Little common saw them waste a free kick with Lewis Unwin sending a shot well over after being teed up on the edge of the box.

Goubert teed up Murray for a blocked shot before he cut inside to have a go himself, forcing another good save from Cruttwell in the closing stages.

One final free-kick from the visitors from a needless foul threaten to spoil the afternoon in the final moments but it was safely negotiated and the three points were confirmed as staying on-island.

Guernsey moved up to fifth place in the Southern Combination Premier Division with Saturday’s other results as follows: Bexhill United 2-0 Forest Row, Eastbourne United 5-1 Crawley Down Gatwick, East Grinstead Town 6-1 Billingshurst, Horsham YM 0-0 Seaford Town, Lancing 3-1 Hassocks, Midhurst & Easebourne 1-1 AFC Varndeanians, Pagham 1-1 Newhaven, Roffey 2-0 Lingfield, Wick 1-4 Haywards Heath Town.

LITTLE COMMON: 1 Matt CRUTTWELL; 2 Kieran LUDLOW; 3 Rory SALTER (12 Ole MacDONALD, 81′); 4 Paul FEAKINS (c) (15 Sam ATKIN, 81′); 5 Harvey MAPSTONE; 6 Erakhovue OBANOKHO (17 Ryan SPIERS, 85′); 7 Tyrece DRUMMOND (14 Finn JACK, 71′); 8 Lewis UNWIN; 9 Kenny POGUE; 10 Sam ELLIS (16 Nathan CRABB, 66′); 11 Freddie WARREN.

Booked: Salter, Feakins, Mapstone, Warren.