FOR the second year running Grouville’s hopes of long-awaited Trinity Shield glory were left in tatters after again leading at the half-way stage of the final.

A first-half penalty from Jonny Gough was comprehensively wiped out last night by strikes from St Brelade’s Jordan McBride, James Quérée and Jean-Paul Martyn.

It was a case of déja vu for the easterners at Springfield as the Saints emphatically turned the match on its head after the break to win 3-1 and have captain Lee A’court lift the westerners’ 16th title – their first success since 2003.

Agonisingly, St Clement, another of the big boys to dominate the competition, had done exactly the same to Andy Cadoret’s boys 12 months go. But for the first 45 minutes it was the boys in blue who looked set for glory in this, the oldest of the Channel Islands’ football competitions. That Grouville had not lifted the trophy in 80 years would have seemed rather ridiculous to a newcomer to Island football, such was their superiority over favourites St Brelade.

• Picture: Lee A’court lifts the oldest trophy in Channel Islands football, the Trinity Shield, after St Brelade triumphed at Springfield (00610347)