| LINGFIELD | 5 | – | 1 | GUERNSEY |
| McGregor 13′ Ntim 22′, 45′ Belousas 75′ Alyasi (pen) 90′ |
Wallace 90+1′ |
Guernsey had a bad night at the office at Church Road as they were well beaten by hosts for the night, Lingfield.
The Green Lions were struggling with a few players carrying knocks, finding themselves three down at the break after struggling to find any sort of rhythm, the third being a particularly killer blow in the dying moments of the first half.
Tony Vance’s side couldn’t rouse themselves after the interval either, falling a further two goals behind before Brandon Wallace’s first goal since February at least meant they had something to take home.
It started brightly enough as Charlton Gauvain flicked on to put Allen in on goal, who thwacked the ball into the back of the net but was flagged offside, but it was all downhill from there. The hosts put real pressure on the visiting defence and an important Jamie Dodd block was followed by amazing reflexes from Seb Sheppard to keep out the rebound.
That was just a warning sign as Yusuf McGregor was picked out in the box, shifted onto his left foot and steered the ball in at the near post for a 13th-minute lead. Kwesi Ntim nearly followed with a second quickly as he shifted into space on the edge of the box but his shot was straight at Sheppard.
But the Lingers’ top scorer wasn’t going to be denied for long and he forced his way between two defenders in the box and drilled ino the bottom corner to double the lead after 21 minutes.
Sheppard made another strong double save, pushing a zipping shot wide before beating away the rebound at his near post. He was fouled as he tried to claim the loose ball out of the air and the goal was quickly chalked off as the ball dropped into the net.
GFC’s cause wasn’t helped by the 10-minute sinbinning of Fin du Port, who let his frustration get the better of him after the referee waved away his appeals for a foul. Guernsey survived his temporary absence, but conceded a third right on half-time as Ntim converted the rebound from McGregor’s initial effort on the counter attack.
It looked to be more of the same after the break. Iker Noguera Leon cut inside and hit the outside of the post. They hit the woodwork again soon after as a loose ball from Will Fazakerley’s defensive header dropped down and Richardson smashed a rising drive against the underside of the crossbar after which it bounced to safety.
Sheppard comfortably fielded a first free-kick from Alex Kpakpe, but it summed up Guernsey’s night when a another dead ball from Kpakpe caught Sheppard out with everyone expecting the cross. The Guernsey keeper got a hand to it but the ball bounced up onto the underside of the bar and over the line.
To cap off a miserable night, the Greens had to finish with 10 as du Port limped off injured in the closing stages. Moments later Belousas was unlucky not to make it five as his shot flew past Sheppard and crashed off the post. But the fifth was to come as substitute Rewan Alyasi skipped past one challenge and was tripped by the trailing leg of Will Fazakerley. He wrongfooted Sheppard from the spot to dink the ball in the opposite corner.
Wallace turned in Corey Brouard’s cutback from close range for the meakest of consolations but it couldn’t mask a bad night for Guernsey as the patched up Green Lions suffered in Surrey.
The result means Guernsey won’t have the chance to go top on Saturday even if they beat early leaders Eastbourne United. This clash was part of the Bank Holiday Monday fixture schedule, with those results as follows: AFC Varndeanians 0-0 Hassocks; Billingshurst 1-1 Crawley Down Gatwick; East Grinstead Town 3-1 Forest Row, Eastbourne United 8-2 Bexhill United, Little Common 3-1 Seaford Town, Midhurst & Easebourne 3-2 Lancing, Newhaven 1-5 Haywards Heath Town, Pagham 3-0 Wick, Roffey 4-1 Horsham YM.
LINGFIELD: 1 Sang Hyun BAEK; 2 Jack McDONNELL (16 Jordan BARTLEY-DAVE 87′); 3 Guyni NGANGA; 4 Luke RICHARDSON (c) (12 Jason STRIPP, ‘); 5 Stephen HODGE; 6 Alex KPAKPE; 7 Iker NOGUERA LEON (14 William ENGLISH, 69’); 8 Kristian BELOUSAS; 9 Gabriel ODUNAIKE; 10 Kewsi NTIM (17 Rewan ALYASI ‘); 11 Yusuf McGREGOR. Not used: 15 Ollie THOMPSON.
Booked: Richardson.
GUERNSEY: 13 Seb SHEPPARD; 3 Jamie DODD; 5 Fin DU PORT; 6 Seb VANCE (19 Will FAZAKERLEY, 50′); 7 Charlton GAUVAIN (c) (18 Dave MERRIS, ); 10 Ross ALLEN (22 Fin PATTERSON, 69′); 14 Simon ARNOLD; 15 Ben SOLWAY; 16 Corey BROUARD; 23 Archie DRILLOT (4 Tom DODDS, 50′), 25 Dylan GRAHAM (11 Brandon WALLACE, 70′).
Booked: Sheppard, du Port, Fazakerley. Sinbinned: du Port
Attendance: 95
