ST PAUL’S beat holders Scottish in the Charity Cup final at Springfield to leave manager Tony Hoyland itching to start the new league campaign.

But his opposite number Bob Kearsey was seething over his side’s sloppiness in front of goal – with star striker Ross Crick the main culprit.

Two breakaway goals, the first scored by Craig Leitch and the second created by him for Jean-Paul Martin, earned the Saints victory – but Kearsey was adamant that the second was offside.

And afterwards he said: ‘We should have been 3-0 up by half time – we missed three golden chances.

We dominated the first half and the second as well.

It was a steal job – their second goal was blatantly offside as far as I’m concerned.

The best team lost – it was like ping-pong in their penalty area.’ Chris Carter hit the ball against Saints ‘keeper Danny Evans, who had dropped the ball, and then Crick, under no pressure, twice missed the target from good shooting positions, the second with just Evans to beat.

But Leitch gave the Saints the lead in the 26th minute when the Saints broke out of defence and found Leitch who beat his marker and then slipped the ball beneath ‘keeper Chris Sheehan.

And it was 2-0 after 60 minutes with Leitch again the Scottish tormentor.

Again it was a breakout and again Leitch took on the Scottish defence before drawing Sheehan and then slipping the ball to Martin who found the empty net from 12 yards.

It was the 75th minute before the Scots pulled one back.

Following a corner St Paul’s failed to clear their lines and Gordon Brodie drove the ball home.

For the rest of the match St Paul’s were severely under the cosh but survived.

Hoyland picked out defender Carl Eubank and goalkeeper Evans as his men of the match.

‘Carl was outstanding at the back and Danny pulled off some great saves,’ he said.

‘It was a cracking cup final.

In the second half they pegged us back for a lot of the time but we dealt with everything they threw at us.

‘It was an absolutely brilliant team performance.

Scottish are the best team in Jersey so to beat them at Springfield in a final is great.

We’ve got our first league game a week on Saturday – it’s been a long wait but we’re looking forward to it, especially now we’ve beaten Grouville and Scottish.’ Such was the tension after the break that Saints assistant manager Martin Cassidy was banished from the dug-out by the officials.

Added Hoyland: ‘I think some of the refereeing decisions led to people on the touchline getting upset.’ St Paul’s: Danny Evans, Shaun Irvine, Richard Le Galle, Carl Eubank, Richard Roulson, Glenn Rayner, Stuart André, Anthony McGovern, Kamil, Craig Leitch, Jean-Paul Martin.

Subs used: Graham Prescott (for McGovern), Pavel (for Le Galle), Jay Cassidy (for Eubank).

Jersey Scottish: Chris Sheehan, Scott Devlin, Craig Ferey, Gordon Brodie, Bradley Cooke, Paul Duxbury, Gordon Docherty, David Brodie, Mark Brown, Chris Carter, Ross Crick.

Subs used: Andrew Murphy (for Brown); Chris McNab (for Docherty).

Referee: Andy Cox; assistants: Andy Norman, Nick Richardson.