Guernsey FC star Allen targets another season

Ross Allen (left) scored the first goal at Guernsey FC's new Victoria Park ground last month

Guernsey FC's record goalscorer Ross Allen says he will return to the club next season.

The 38-year-old has scored 311 goals in 356 games and has been part of the Green Lions side since they were founded in 2011.

Allen, who played in the Fifa Club World Cup for New Zealand side Team Wellington in 2018, is widely regarded as the best player ever to wear the Guernsey side's colours.

He says the lure of Guernsey's new home at Victoria Park will keep him playing, even after the Green Lions suffered their first-ever relegation on Saturday.

"I think for me the new stadium is a real draw and I would like to get at least one season there, especially now to help the help the group through a different league," he told BBC Radio Guernsey.

"It's just really exciting, I think with my coach's hat on as well with all the work we're doing behind the scenes with the Guernsey FA, we had Jersey Bulls youth teams over at Victoria Park to play some of our academy teams and that really excites me.

"It just shows that we've got some good kids coming through and I want to help some of them get to the stage where they're phasing straight into Guernsey FC and it's a nice transition for them to come into senior football.

"If I can still lace up boots and get the odd game here and there then that's really important for me while I can still do it and the body still allows me to do it."

Allen scored 16 goals in 31 appearances this season, including a run of scoring in eight consecutive appearances from the start of February through to April.

It was his best goalscoring season since he claimed 19 goals in the 2021-22 campaign - although some way off Allen's pomp in Guernsey's first season in the eighth tier back in 2013-14 when he found the net an incredible 54 times.

He says relegation out of the Isthmian League after 12 seasons is a chance to reflect, but also a chance to build for the future.

"Ultimately we are in a football pyramid. Getting relegated doesn't mean you stop existing as a club, it's just another chapter, it's just a time to reset," he added.

"We are a very unique club. If this was a club in the UK probably half or all of the players would leave, the coach would leave, it would be a total reshuffle.

"We've got that really unique situation where nothing really changes.

"We've got the same personnel and we could just roll into the next one and maybe blood a few younger players, get a few more players out there that maybe in certain games we just didn't quite give the minutes to this season because we needed a bit more experience out there."