TONY VANCE was, a decade ago, taught a valuable and painful personal lesson by a predecessor of his as island boss.

Phil Corbet dropped him from a Muratti final line-up when he thought that the Sylvans stalwart was a fading force.

Corbet’s decision bore fruit, Jersey were beaten and, 10 years later Vance, knows he must make his own tough decisions to get the better of the Caesareans.

But how tough will Vance be, particularly as he is not blessed with a squad full of proven talent?

Dropping Jody Bisson in favour of a fast-emerging and physically imposing new and better goalkeeper in Tom Le Tissier is one thing, but will he have it in him to end the Muratti career of his long-time former Sylvans colleague and the current island captain, Matt Warren?

On the evidence of last Saturday and club and representative football of the past two seasons, the time is getting ever closer for Warren (pictured) either to be stood down or for the hat-trick hero of the 2003 Island Games final to successfully re-invent his game for the need of the island side.

There are growing mutterings among those who watch the game closely that our captain is ripe to be left out after fantastic service to his island’s team for more than a decade.

At 28, the St Martin’s skipper is struggling to readjust his game after a decade of rampaging forward in the manner of Man U’s Bryan Robson.

While clearly the outstanding player of the first decade of the 21st century, Warren no longer has the legs to command an automatic place in the Guernsey midfield. The question is does he remain in the team?

Last Saturday emphasised just how much his game has regressed, although I’m reliably informed he was playing under instructions

to hold while Scott Bradford and Dominic Heaume got forward.

The skipper was the weak link in an otherwise highly-encouraging win over the Southern Amateur League, the action passing him by for long periods and, do you know what, nobody was that surprised.

Warren’s days of lung-busting, power surges from deep and match-winning goals, appear to have gone. The injuries, the sheer barnstorming nature of his trademark years, have taken their toll.

There was a brief moment at the end of last season when, in tandem with his heir apparent, Ben Coulter, I saw a glimpse of the old ‘Wozza’.

But, sadly, it was all too brief and there is a whisper going about that had everyone been fit last weekend, Warren would not have been named in the starting XI.

The skipper might see it as a slight on his footballing credentials to read claims that he is past it.

But in Guernsey’s current depressing run of Muratti losses, it is time to make tough decisions and address our weaknesses.

He was a consistently great player for Sylvans and Guernsey, but not now I’m afraid.

The great tag now sits better with that little Bels No. 7, Dave Rihoy.

What a fantastic player he is and don’t the SAL know it.

He is our best and most consistent attacker by some way and one of these days that rapier shooting, the likes of which we saw at the Track last Saturday, will shoot down the Jerseymen.

When that happens he can truly be acclaimed as a great Guernsey player.

The FA NLS Cup win threw up one other major consideration as far as yours truly is concerned.

Can we realistically afford to go to Springfield and take on a Jersey defence so superbly marshalled by the likes of Stuart Andre and Scott Devlin, with a one dimensional ‘diddy-men’ attack of Rihoy, Ross Allen and Glyn Dyer.

They may well be the three most attractive on the eye and skilful players we have playing in Division One, but can they undo Jersey?

Rihoy and Allen have yet to score against Jersey in a final, while Dyer has one to his name.

Picking all three makes for some easy-on-the-eye approach play but it seems all a little imbalanced and on Saturday’s evidence do we have the luxury of giving both Dyer and Rihoy free roles?

I don’t think so.

When Dyer and Rihoy were wriggling their way to the byline against the SAL, there was no head in the middle to aim at.

Heaume could not quite get himself sufficiently forward from his lung-busting midfield duties and Allen wins little in the air.

So while it was heart-warming to see Guernsey play so well last weekend, let’s not get carried away yet.

The mission remains to give Jersey a long overdue stuffing.