Belgraves 1, St Martin’s 3

TWO 100% records were maintained at the Track last night. Champions St Martin’s looked out of sorts for large periods of the match, especially in the second half, but they still managed to secure their fourth successive Priaulx win and reaffirm their position at the top of the league.

At the other end of the table, Bels are rooted to the bottom without a point to their name and coach Ray Queripel is quite happy that his side’s next fixture is in the Jeremie Cup so that they can take a break from their Priaulx blues.

It was certainly not a match without incident with a couple of goals in either half, several more chances created and some tasty challenges flying in later on, but it was lacking in quality despite early signs of promise.

Although Bels started brightly, it was the visitors who came closest to scoring in the opening exchanges with Alex Hunter’s header hitting the bar.

Both sides created further chances before Saints took the lead on 38min. as Hunter and Rob Pickford broke away quickly and the latter calmly slotted home a curling left-foot shot from the edge of the box.

But Bels went into the interval on level terms as Sam Rowe was adjudged to have fouled Marc McGrath in the area after Saints failed to clear a corner. Simon Marley tucked away the penalty.

It was a spot-kick 10 minutes after the break that put the visitors back in front as Jan Renouf was pulled down by Lee Taylor giving Hunter the opportunity to put his name on the scoresheet, which he did nonchalantly.

The victory was wrapped up when substitute Lee Renouf headed home a right wing cross late on.

It was not vintage Saints by any means, but they always say the sign of a good team is one that wins when not at their best and they will certainly improve on this performance.

Coach Colin Renouf was pleased to see his side pick up three points although he admitted that his defence had looked unusually at sea on occasions.

‘We have tried to analyse it as decision making – when to go and attack the ball, when to control it and when to pass it first time. Some of that decision making was poor tonight,’ he said.

‘But it is good to get another win and hopefully it will continue on Saturday against Jersey Wanderers at Blanche Pierre Lane[in the Jeremie] although we will have to change it a bit because some players are missing due to a wedding.’

Queripel said his players are giving their all at the moment and believes they just need a bit of luck for their fortunes to turn.

‘We worked to our game plan well and kept a better shape tonight, but I am obviously disappointed with the result. I am sure we had enough chances to take something from the game.’