2023 Island Games: Jersey men beat Gozo to begin football campaign with victory

Sol Solomon had not played for Jersey since September when he left the island to join Northern Premier League side Marine

Jersey's men began their Island Games football campaign with a 1-0 win in an ill-tempered clash with Gozo.

Former Jersey Bulls striker Sol Solomon returned to the islanders having left for Northern Premier League side Marine in September to score the only goal.

The forward headed home after 33 minutes after good build-up work from Lorne Bickley and Jay Giles.

Gozo's captain was sent off in the second half as tempers flared following a number of tough tackles.

Jersey face Menorca in their second group game on Monday afternoon before taking on St Helena on Tuesday in their final pool match.

The group winners will progress to the semi-finals on Thursday.

"I thought we played really well, the discipline and the shape out of possession was fantastic and on another day the scoreline looks a bit more flattering as we missed a couple of good chances as well," said Jersey boss Elliot Powell, who was taking charge of his first game for the island side.

"It did get heated, I thought it boiled over at times, I didn't think it was controlled overly well," he added to BBC Channel Islands.

"Lots of small incidents went untouched and that boiled over into two relatively large incidents.

"It was heated out there, but our lads didn't break focus once, they kept switched on and didn't allow the antics that were going around the field to affect them at all."

Bermuda down Jersey women

Jersey's women won bronze when football was last held at the Island Games in 2017

Meanwhile Jersey's women began their Island Games campaign with a 4-0 defeat to Bermuda at The Track.

Bermuda captain Eva Frazzoni put her side in front inside the first two minutes before Jya Ratteray-Smith doubled the lead 12 minutes before half time.

Ratteray-Smith made it 3-0 three minutes after half time before Leilanni Nesbeth got the fourth six minutes later.

Jersey know they must win their remaining games over Aland and Hitra to have a chance of progressing to the semi-finals as the best second-placed side in the three groups of teams taking part.

"We played against a really quality side, Bermuda are a Fifa nation so they've just been playing in World Cup qualifiers," Jersey captain Libby Barnett told BBC Channel Islands.

"We need to remember what we're good at. What we're really good at is attacking football and unfortunately we didn't get as much of that as we would have liked today, purely because they're a really good side."

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