Charlton Gauvain: Guernsey FC midfielder hailed despite 2-1 Met Police loss

Charlton Gauvain made his Guernsey FC debut when he was 16 having had time at Bristol City's academy

Guernsey FC midfielder Matt Loaring has hailed the form of team-mate Charlton Gauvain after their 2-1 loss at Metropolitan Police.

Gauvain scored a superb individual goal to give the Green Lions a 40th-minute lead in the capital as he scored for the sixth successive match.

The Met equalised through Mason Galloway's 55th-minute goal before Benjamin Mendoza scored soon after.

Guernsey had skipper Jamie Dodd sent off in stoppage time.

The defender was red-carded after bringing down an opponent as he was through on goal and will miss Saturday's clash with Hartley Wintney at Footes Lane.

But Gauvain got the plaudits after picking up the ball on the edge of the area and dribbling past three defenders before calmly finishing into the bottom corner.

"We know what Charlton's capable of and anyone who knows Charlton and knows his history in football is he's been very unlucky with injuries, and I do think he would have been a professional player," said Loaring, who has been in fine form himself with eight goals in his last 11 appearances.

"That's how I feel about him in terms of if he hadn't had his bad luck with injuries.

"I think he's showing what he's capable of when he gets a decent run in the game without being injured.

Gauvain missed much of last season after suffering an ankle injury in pre-season, only returning to action in March 2023

"He's scored six goals in the last six games now and he's a fantastic player, everyone knows it.

"He's our most influential player and hopefully he stays fit for the rest of the season because we're really benefitting from him, he's stepped up so much and he's got that capability, he's just a fantastic player."

The loss sees the Green Lions drop to 17th place in Isthmian League South Central as their opponents moved four points ahead of them in 15th place.

"I think we were probably value to be at least one up at half-time, with the dominance we had in the first half it could have been more than one," Loaring added to BBC Radio Guernsey.

"There were a couple of decisions that went against us - for me the free-kick Charlton won the ball fair and square, we've lost a free kick out of it and they've scored directly from that.

"That's a big moment in the game, but having said that we couldn't recover mentally from it, so we've got ourselves to look at there, we had to dust ourselves off.

"We haven't done that, I think the game went frantic and we lost control of it.

"Decisions went against us, but I do feel like we've got to learn from those moments and I think we lost a game but we were the better side."