MAKING a few bob in hard times is as good a reason as any for switching the Muratti back to the Track.

But don’t tell me the old Cycling Ground is a better venue for the big games than Foote’s Lane.

With such an accommodating host as Hilary Sarre, it was no wonder the Guernsey Football Association board made the decision to take the biggest match in CI football back to its spiritual home.

The balance sheet suggested it was madness to do anything else.

But it irks me no end to hear that Foote’s Lane is not a venue worthy of staging events such as Murattis.

It simply isn’t true.

The Foote’s Lane experiment did not work for three reasons: 1 – the biggest defensive surrender in recent history of Guernsey-Jersey games; 2 – two of the most mind-numbing scoreless draws the old fixture has seen in its 104-year history; 3 – the cost of hiring and manning a venue that has more openings than the Rovers defence.

I maintain that the whole fuss over whether Foote’s Lane was the right place to stage the Muratti would not have blown up had Guernsey not thrown away the inaugural 2003 game.

Nobody was complaining under a spring sun as Guernsey led 3-1 with just four extra-time minutes to go.

But Jersey’s escape had the bulk of the 4,500 fans at the Lane – yes that’s not a misprint, there really were that many there – heading for the exits grumbling and looking for excuses.

Instead of the home defending, it was the ground’s fault. It was not up to scratch and spectators were just too far away from the action, they said.

For the Centenary game in 2005, organisers gave the fans what they wanted and again it wasn’t enough.

Seated stands behind both goals and along the far touchline made it the first all-seated Muratti in its history. It looked brilliant.

There was no peering over shoulders for a half-blocked view of the action, no solid iron beam to block your sight from the stand.

But instead of the greatest celebration in Muratti history, all we got was the dullest

nil-nil ever – that was until the 2007 game at the same venue put everyone to sleep again before we awoke to see Jersey win the penalty shootout.

In 2005 and 2007 it wasn’t Foote’s Lane that was not up to scratch, it was the two sets of players playing poorly amid modern, negative tactics and with pop-gun attacks which would not have been tolerated by past generations of Muratti followers.

The football was rubbish, that’s all.

Logistically, Foote’s Lane was a nightmare for Muratti organisers.

At the Track there’s one entrance and one exit – unless you want to scramble over a high wall or through a bog in the Marais.

Down at the Lane it was a stewarding nightmare to ensure everyone had paid, such are the wide expanses and number of entry points.

The supposed need for Maximum Security to keep order in the Garenne Stand just added to the cost.

My final point.

If Foote’s Lane is no good for Muratti football, why did the venue last year witness the best, most thrilling, enthralling, noisy sporting spectacle in donkey’s years?

Unprejudiced Siam Cup rugby fans, all 3,000-plus of them, got behind their team and revelled in a mighty fine sporting venue that Guernsey sport should celebrate not castigate.