ST PAUL’S won the Coca-Cola Combination Division I championship following a hard-fought 3-1 victory over St Peter at Clos des Pauvres in St Saviour on Saturday afternoon.

Needing just one point to take them out of Trinity’s reach, Craig Culkin and Martin Cassidy’s side were made to work exceptionally hard in the second half, but a late strike by Liam Walshe

finally settled St Paul’s nerves to take them to their first title since 2000.

Craig Russell fired St Paul’s into the lead with a dipping shot from 30 yards and they doubled their advantage shortly before half-time when Craig Leitch slotted home a penalty after a late challenge from Kevan Crowell.

Pressure

St Peter were bright from the offset but Marco Vieira squandered two good opportunities. They pulled a goal back shortly after the resumption to increase the pressure on their hosts again.

St Peter pushed players forward in search of a second goal and St Paul’s

responded by switching from a three-man back line to four, and following a quick free-kick by Jon Fitzmaurice,

Walshe swivelled to net St Paul’s third goal from outside the corner of a penalty area with nine minutes remaining.

Culkin said: ‘We knew the title was in our hands. It was nerve-wracking and very tense at times, and thankfully we got through.

‘We had to graft when St Peter pressed on but we coped well, I thought. Their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves while we protected our 17-year-old goalkeeper well. We suffered a big blow losing Andy Bird for our last two games, and Davie Alexander did well in our last game and 17-old-year Peter Osmont gave a good account of himself today, too.

‘We scored two fine goals again today and that is typical of our season because we just don’t seem to score from a lost of close-range efforts.

‘I had a headache with selection because everyone was fit and Jean-Paul Martyn was unfortunate not to start. I went with Craig Russell because he’s a big lad, he has good technical ability and he is difficult to knock off the ball.

‘It was a great strike from Craig Russell and Liam’s at the finish was equally impressive to take the pressure off.

‘St Peter came back hard after we conceded a sloppy goal, but I’m not going to dwell on that because the defence of Stuart Andre, James Fortune, Luke McGlone and the goalkeepers have all been brilliant. They have a desire not to concede and I’m not sure but we could well be looking at a record for only conceding nine league goals in winning the title.

‘Luke deserves enormous credit, too. He is willing to learn and he will learn from the players around him. Unfortunately he has missed a lot of big games for the Island’s under-18s this season because he made a mistake outside of football. I hope he is given a second chance next season because he thoroughly deserves it.

‘Craig Leitch has had a magnificent season too. He lost his father Alan during the season and the lads really wanted to win the title for him.’