North 3, Jersey Scottish 2

NORTH have got one over Jersey Scottish before their potential Upton meeting. Both teams look set to take their respective league titles and then face each other on Saturday 21 April to determine who is the best side in the Channel Islands.

North will now be filled with total confidence after they beat Scottish at home in the Jeremie Cup semi-final on Saturday, especially considering they were without a number of key players and at one point had four of their Youth One side on the pitch.

‘That was one game of football and it was one of the best I’ve ever been involved in,’ said North boss Mick Le Prevost.

‘As a coach these are the kind of games you want to be involved in. We battled hard, we had four juniors out there and they all wanted to be out there.

‘For 20 minutes of the second half they were all over us but we never gave up. At two each it was anybody’s game but we had a really good finish.

‘It bodes well for the Upton. I’ve seen them play now and it’s going to be excellent.

‘I’m looking forward to that but we’ve first got to get three points against Rovers on Monday week.’

In a real cracker of a match, the Priaulx leaders went ahead early in the first half before Scottish came back to score two and take the lead.

North responded to equalise and then took the game into added time when their skipper, Gavin Le Page, popped up at the near post to volley home a low corner.

‘I’m pleased especially with the young lads who came in,’ said Le Page.

‘It was an absolutely brilliant win. With the goal, I was just shocked it went in.’

Alex Le Prevost put the home side ahead after 12 minutes when the 18-year-old midfielder powered in a header from a wicked Ollie McKenzie corner.

Ten minutes later and the chocolate-and-blues thought they had their second when McKenzie’s free kick from out wide found its way into the back of the goal.

But it was disallowed when referee Brent Blondel judged there was a push on the Scottish keeper, Gareth Bayley.

North had the better of the game throughout the half until Scottish nipped a goal back five minutes from half-time when central midfielder Luke Watson put away a Ross Crick cross.

Into the second half and the visitors came out with more purpose and took the lead almost immediately when at a corner Scott Devlin scored with a header.

Scottish tightened things up at the back and made life difficult for North as they continued to make more chances but could not find the back of the net to stretch their lead.

Substitute Ali Santos was a livewire when he came on at right wing with 10 minutes to go.

But it was North who scored next to level the proceedings when linesman Ted Teed judged Bayley had accidentally handled the ball just outside the box.

Le Prevost stood up to take the free kick which he belted low past the wall and Bayley just could not keep it out.

In response, Scottish nearly regained the advantage when Santos rattled the post with a stinging shot.

Simon Tostevin then came close when he had a free header but he couldn’t keep it down, but that was soon forgotten when Le Page smacked home a brilliant low corner from Richard Moore three minutes into added time.

North will play either Trinity or St Peter in the final.

The two Jersey teams meet in their semi-final on Tuesday night.

Scottish coach Pat Brennan felt his side deserved to be in the final after their performance on Saturday.

‘We couldn’t finish the game at 2-1 up,’ he said.

‘Two corners and a free kick and that was where they got three goals. We played them off the park and it should have been dead and buried.

‘They have some good players – the big lad up front [Tostevin] is a handful and so is the small pacy one [Veron] but I think we’re a finer football team. In the Upton, if we play them on a better surface, I think we’ll have the better of them.’