THERE is a wonderfully refreshing innocence about the home crowds in Guernsey FC’s debut season.

They pay their money, the goals fly in and their new heroes simply wipe the floor with the opposition.

The Garenne Stand support don’t curse and swear, they don’t ridicule the opposition, just politely back their side and forever clap.

And more than anything they go home happy.

All’s well then.

Well, sort of.

At some stage they will have to have their eyes opened to a new world of their team struggling to break down the opposition, failing to create chances and – heaven forbid but it will happen and it will be good for us – lose.

Thankfully, that is unlikely to happen this season, unless it is to a Premier Division side in the CCL Premier Division Cup.

But for the wholly worthy and necessary project to maximise the potential of island football, the Green Lions need to quickly get to a level where they are exposed to far better and far fitter players than the Sheerwater side we saw last Saturday.

Behind the scenes there are mutterings of the Football Association working on a restructuring of the lower league pyramid and Guernsey FC, as clear champions, benefiting from such tinkering.

But my understanding is that tinkering would not benefit Guernsey. There’s no fast track through the leagues available to us. We will have to earn the right to play at the level commensurable to our ability, wherever that is.

That means next season in the CCL Premier.

Meanwhile, the short-term problem is that Tony Vance’s men are, quite clearly, far too good for Division One of the Combined Counties League and there is a small worry that with too many Sheerwaters it will become something of a turn-off for those who like to see a more competitive edge to their sport.

It also remains to be seen whether sweeping aside team after team becomes damaging to the national team’s chances of wresting back the Muratti Vase.

Personally, I cannot imagine it will do anything but good such is the sheer frequency of the CCL programme and the fact that the team are moulding and developing by the week, even against inferior opposition.

While you have to question whether mismatches such as the Sheerwater are helpful to this very worthy and wholly necessary short-, mid- and long-term project to lift standards locally, it is a necessary negative and, let’s be honest, it is scarcely that.

Winning 9-0 after a string of fives and fours, provides a very warm feeling and we should enjoy it while it lasts.

No matter what the score the venture is providing competition for places.

Tony Vance insisted the island had more quality players than many of us thought, and so it is turning out to be.

He has already used in excess of 30 and, whatever combination he puts out, wins.

Also, players who go on holiday during the season may not able simply to walk back into the team in the manner they would be able to at club level.

At some stage down the road – perhaps a couple of years when Guernsey FC are hopefully in the Ryman Leagues at level four – the competition will be so tough that Tony Vance will be able to say to his players, take a holiday at your peril.

My guess is that at that stage more and more holidays among our elite footballers will be taken during the summer months.

It’s serious now but it will get more serious the further up the ladder we head and, at that stage, I suspect the many hundred of traditional football folk who are currently turning their nose up at Guernsey FC because either they are jealous of what the club has achieved in such a short time or don’t believe it is competitive enough to go along to that horrible ground at Footes Lane (yes, I am being facetious), will put aside their prejudices and support the community side through thick and thin.

The project is working better than anyone could ever imagine and is here to stay for a long, long time.