FIRST Tower United took a massive step towards retaining the Coca-Cola Jersey Football Combination women’s division title on Sunday following a 2-1 victory away to St Paul’s.

Tower, who now require a maximum of one point to claim a third consecutive championship, won with two well-taken goals from Island strikers Louise Van Der Vliet and Jodie Botterill. The former Jersey players of the year scored the first and last goals of the game with former Island captain Sarah Gavey netting in between with a long-range effort inside a far post.

Tower manager Geoff Van Der Vliet said: ‘St Paul’s were the better side in the first half and had they taken their chances they could well have had the game sewn up at half time. Jemma Daniel had a fine opening 45 minutes and although most of their efforts were from long range we did clear one off our goal-line. We soaked up quite a bit of pressure; St Paul’s put us under a lot of pressure by closing us down quickly and we took the lead on the break following great foot work from Louise [Vandervliet]. It was a different story after half time; we hit the ball long and looked for the flick-on because both our strikers are quick.’

Pictured: Leanne Bell of St Paul’s challenges First Tower captain Kerry Sauvage