INCENSED Trinity coach Joe Morley was still seething at Guernsey officials minutes after his Jersey side had been beaten 2-1 by North in the Deloitte Jeremie Cup final on Saturday. The match was blighted by controversy and police arrived at the Corbet Field in the second half and kept an eye on proceedings.
Aggrieved Trinity players and supporters refused to applaud the officials at the end of the game during the presentation ceremony.
And after skipper Darren Martin lifted the trophy they headed disconsolately to their dressing room - visibly upset at the way they felt they had been treated.
‘Three people spoilt a smashing game of football and ruined the game. I don’t want to say anything I regret,’ Morley said.
But moments later he willingly and openly questioned why referee Peter Davison had not consulted assistant Neil Lunn, who appeared to have flagged for a foul by Simon Tostevin, seconds before North struck an equaliser through Jon Veron in first-half stoppage time.
He also claimed one of the officials had called the police to the ground.
‘I thought the referee was poor and the officials spoilt the game. It was an absolutely blatant foul and the linesman flagged and the referee overruled him,’ claimed Morley.
‘It then became a fiasco.’
‘That is the worst refereeing performance I have seen for a long time. At a crucial time in the game he made a wrong decision. His assistant clearly flagged and he did not even ask him for his decision.’
‘We feel unjust over the first goal - everybody in the ground saw it was a foul. I would not say we were robbed but we were hindered.’
A Gavin Le Page own goal had given Trinity the lead. As the teams walked off the pitch midfielder Jon Fitzmaurice was red-carded by Davison for foul and abusive language.
To compound Trinity’s misery, substitute and local doctor, Matt Dorrian, left them feeling sick with a late winner.
North coach Mick Le Prevost admitted it had been a difficult and competitive game but could see no reason why Trinity felt so aggrieved.
‘The referee got it absolutely right - he was spot on with the decision - it was Tosty [Tostevin] who got fouled,’ he alleged.
And he thought Jersey’s number one goalkeeper Jimmy Styles should have been sent off earlier in the game.
‘I personally believe when Glyn Dyer got brought down it should have been a straight red,’ he said.
He was delighted to add another trophy to the bulging cabinet at Northfield and believed they had fully deserved their win.
‘If somebody had come up to me at the start of the season and said you will win the Priaulx League, Stranger Cup and the Jeremie I would have most probably laughed at them.
‘But once I saw the belief in the players after five or six games I believed they could do it.’
North’s attention now turns to the biggest Channel Islands club game on the calendar against Scottish in Jersey this weekend - the Upton.
‘We are looking forward to it and we are going there to win the game - we are going there with the attitude to win. We have to go forward, we don’t sit back because we will score goals,’ said Le Prevost.
Davison did not want to speak to the media after the game.
Article posted on 16th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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