[Football] Guernsey FC

This weekend Guernsey FC drew with Phoenix Sports in Bexleyheath in the FA Cup.

As they aren't allowed to host replays in Guernsey (FA rule), the rematch will be held in Lewes. Whoever wins the replay will be at home to ... Lewes. Nice for Lewes to be able to scout out their next opponents without leaving home. Couldn't the game have been played ANYWHERE else? Does anyone know if Guernsey knew who their next opponents could be when they agreed to host any replay at Lewes?

A few seasons back Guernsey played a cup match at Lancing ( Sussex FA ground) .
I can't remember the opponents or the exact reasons they played the game in Sussex.

Juan Albion said:

This weekend Guernsey FC drew with Phoenix Sports in Bexleyheath in the FA Cup.

As they aren't allowed to host replays in Guernsey (FA rule), the rematch will be held in Lewes. Whoever wins the replay will be at home to ... Lewes. Nice for Lewes to be able to scout out their next opponents without leaving home. Couldn't the game have been played ANYWHERE else? Does anyone know if Guernsey knew who their next opponents could be when they agreed to host any replay at Lewes?

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Do Guernsey FC get the right to choose a club on the mainland ? ie they have approached Lewes previously, to this seasons competition and agreed to share etc . Not sure but with close proximity to Gatwick would Lewes not make sense ?

bn9 bha said:

A few seasons back Guernsey played a cup match at Lancing ( Sussex FA ground) .
I can't remember the opponents or the exact reasons they played the game in Sussex.

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Cost would probably be a factor - club would probably like to keep them as low as possible, seeing as they have to pay travel expenses for every game they play (they have to pay the visiting clubs travel costs when playing at home).

Love to see them make it through the leagues. Spain has a few island teams in their top two divisions.

Would make for an interesting away day!

Don't Guernsey at the moment have to contribute towards visiting teams' travel costs when they play league matches? They have an agreement not to play any home matches in midweek because it is seen as unfair on players of visiting teams who will obviously have day jobs at that level.

HOW cab a team play in FA games, but not at home ground?? Either in, or out. Ridic.

desprateseagull said:

HOW cab a team play in FA games, but not at home ground?? Either in, or out. Ridic.

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For the reasons already given about not being allowed to play in midweek in Guernsey because of the travel involved for players with day jobs. It's hardly a unique situation that a club has to replay at a ground other than their home. It's happened several times in the first couple of rounds of the FA Cup in the last 10 years where a tie has been switched to a league ground because of safety concerns.

joeinbrighton said:

Don't Guernsey at the moment have to contribute towards visiting teams' travel costs when they play league matches? They have an agreement not to play any home matches in midweek because it is seen as unfair on players of visiting teams who will obviously have day jobs at that level.

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I think, though could be wrong, that they have to pay all of the travel costs for opponents...must be a huge cost for a non-league club

A flight on a chartered plane would probably not cost or take any longer than a coach trip to Devon or Cornwall or not much more.

There was a few Guernsey fans in the Bell before the Blackburn game last saturday.

8ace said:

There was a few Guernsey fans in the Bell before the Blackburn game last saturday.

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Guernsey were playing away at Peacehaven.

Lurchy said:

Cost would probably be a factor - club would probably like to keep them as low as possible, seeing as they have to pay travel expenses for every game they play (they have to pay the visiting clubs travel costs when playing at home).

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Think you are correct here, I seem to remember something about the away team not being able to afford going to Guernsey.

Edit.
I'm wrong here, the match v Dover in 2013 was not played in Guernsey because of a fixtures clash with a rugby club that share the stadium.

BensGrandad said:

A flight on a chartered plane would probably not cost or take any longer than a coach trip to Devon or Cornwall or not much more.

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Considerably faster - I flew from Gatwick to Jersey once and it took under an hour - by the time you got up to cruising height, you started coming down again.

Mustafa said:

Out of interest, how much would it cost to get to Guernsey and back? It costs a fair bit to get to a ferry to Isle of Wight and that's a fraction of the distance.

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Found a flight for £114 return leaving on the Friday and coming back Saturday evening. Though the last flight back was at 18:00 so might be a bit of a squeeze. Though for the same price you can leave early on the Saturday and come back on the Sunday.

Puppet Master said:

Love to see them make it through the leagues. Spain has a few island teams in their top two divisions.

Would make for an interesting away day!

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So would I. It's a really lovely island, I can't think of anything better than a football weekend over there.

bn9 bha said:

Guernsey were playing away at Peacehaven.

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Wardy said:

Though the last flight back was at 18:00 so might be a bit of a squeeze.

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This was why the kick off was 1pm.

MacKenzie said:

So would I. It's a really lovely island, I can't think of anything better than a football weekend over there.

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I think our resident Peacehaven & Telscombe FC and Brighton fan @ Dr.Not the nine o'clock news went to the Peacehaven away fixture at Guernsey, this was the season before last.
Both teams are in the same division this season.

Mustafa said:

I'm amazed that a non-league club could afford to do that every other week. Particularly if it's true that it needs to subsidise away teams.

Has Brighton ever played them?

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Guernsey FC was formed in 2011

carlzeiss said:

Guernsey FC was formed in 2011

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Guernsey Football Club was formed in 2011 to offer the island's elite footballers the opportunity to progress and test themselves on a regular basis outside of the Channel Islands. The proposal to establish the club and seek to join the English national league pyramid system was developed by the Guernsey Football Association in an attempt to further advance development opportunities for the island's current and future players by playing at higher levels on a regular basis.

We are an independent, community amateur football club which play in the Ryman Isthmian League Division One South at Step Four on English football's non-league pyramid system. The club is owned and run for the benefit of the local Guernsey community and it plays its home games at the Footes Lane Stadium.

The club's vision is to create, develop and maintain a sustainable, successful, financially viable, democratic football club that creates and maintains real and lasting benefits to its members and the local Guernsey community. We are a registered charity and will remain a non-profit organisation with any financial surpluses being re-invested for the future viability of the club and hence the benefit of the local community. All club officials and staff are volunteers.

The initial idea to establish Guernsey FC was developed during the 2009-10 season when Guernsey's Senior County Division One representative side enjoyed a successful run in the FA National League System Cup (for league representative sides at Step Seven on the non-league pyramid system and below, since renamed the FA Inter-League Cup), culminating in Guernsey beating the Liverpool County Premier League 5-2 in the final in May 2010. Along the way, Guernsey defeated representative sides from the Kent County Premier League, the Northampton Premier League, the Southern Amateur League, the Hertfordshire Premier League and the Dorset Premier League. The final was held in Guernsey in front of a crowd of over 2,500 and was the first time ever that the FA had allowed one of its competition finals to be held outside of the UK mainland.

Following a 1-0 victory over Jersey to reclaim the Muratti Vase in May 2010, the prize for winning the FA National League System Cup for this same squad of players was to represent England in the UEFA Regions Cup preliminary round in Croatia in September 2010. This was a fantastic experience for the players and coaching and medical staff and, although Guernsey enjoyed mixed fortunes by beating Wales 3-0, drawing with hosts Croatia 1-1 and losing to group winners Turkey 3-0, it provided football at a higher standard, was very motivational and gave our players a great desire to improve further and to play more regularly at higher levels.

Over the course of the following few months, the club's founding directors, Steve Dewsnip and Mark Le Tissier, received encouragement from the Football Association, the Guernsey FA, the Combined Counties League (which we were introduced to by the FA), our former official main club sponsor Sportingbet, the island's government (the States of Guernsey) and the island's local football community to develop our plans for the new club further and were delighted when the member clubs of the Combined Counties League voted by a significant majority on 20 June 2011 to allow Guernsey FC to join Division One of their league.

Although our club is very young, football in Guernsey has a long history dating back to 1893 when the Guernsey FA was established and since then has produced several players who have graced the highest levels of the English professional game, including Bill Spurdle (Manchester City), Richard Le Flem (Nottingham Forest & England U23), Ron Farmer (Coventry City), Len Duquemin (Tottenham Hotspur) and, more recently and more famously, our former club president Matt Le Tissier (Southampton and England).


Saturday 6th August 2011 was a historic day for Guernsey FC and the island in general when the club played its inaugural game at Footes Lane against Knaphill FC in the Combined Counties League Division One. That historic day turned into an historic season with the club winning the league title, having lost only 2 of its 34 league matches, with a 7-1 win against second-placed Bedfont Sports in front of 2,143 supporters at Footes Lane in March 2012 and then going on to secure the double in its first season by winning the Combined Counties Premier Challenge Cup following a 2-0 victory after extra-time over Premier Division side Colliers Wood United.



The 2012-13 season was a tough campaign. The Green Lions reached the semi-finals of the FA Carlsberg Vase in the club’s first season in the competition, breaking its record attendance twice in the historic run. A crowd of 4,290 was at Footes Lane for the semi-final first leg against Spennymoor Town. The league campaign saw countless postponed fixtures due to adverse weather and the cup run. In April, Guernsey FC played a staggering 16 games in 30 days. The May bank holiday weekend saw GFC play four games in four days and remarkably secure all 12 points to finish second in the Combined Counties Premier League and gain promotion to the Ryman Isthmian League Division One South.


The club's first season in the Ryman Isthmian Leagues was a constructive campaign and had plenty of highs. The club finished in a respectable fourth place but lost 3-2 away to Leatherhead in the play-off semi-final. The Green Lions also became the first team from the Channel Islands to play in the FA Cup during the 2013/14 season, when they took on Crawley Down Gatwick away on 31st August 2013. GFC won the game 3-1 and eventually went out of the competition in the 2nd qualifying round, after losing 3-2 to the Conference South's Dover Athletic.

Guernsey's second season in Ryman South was much tougher. Injuries and unavailability left the Green Lions struggling though October and November and it wasn't until just before Christmas that results picked up. Any hopes of sneaking into the play-offs late on were dashed with a run of four defeats in five games in March. The Green Lions eventually finished 10th in the league before many of the squad were part of the Guernsey FA gold-medal winning side at the 2015 NatWest Island Games in Jersey.