Aided by Ross Crick’s third hat-trick of the season, Bob Kearsey’s side beat Grouville 5-2 at Springfield to move two points ahead of Trinity each from four games played.
Crick used the outside of his left foot for his opener after Mark Brown threaded him through Grouville’s defence after the former professional confidently rode three challenges.
Grouville equalised when the ball ran loose to Luc Le Mière after an excellent tackle from Scott Devlin; Le Mière firing low inside a post.
Ten minutes from the break Grouville, who uncharacteristically gave the ball away cheaply and regularly got caught in possession, were still organising a defensive wall when Brown fired home a direct free kick from 27 yards.
After the break Brown blocked Toni Cardoso’s goal-bound effort, after the striker created space with a good turn.
Six minutes later it was 3-1, Crick converting after he and Andrews played a series of passes covering almost 35 yards.
Cardoso smacked home Grouville’s second from two yards after a corner came through a sea of legs and after Scottish goalkeeper Chris Sheehan palmed out a forceful effort from substitute Liam Walshe, Scottish went up the other end to make it 4-2 – Crick nodding home at the back post after a great run up Scottish’s right from Brown.
Grouville went for broke pushing players forward and after carving out a couple of opportunities they conceded again when Crick’s sweet right-foot drive from 18 yards found a corner after Andrews had done the ground work.
The parish side, who dropped their first points of the season, continued to press and substitute John Kiersey forced a good tip-over save from Sheehan.
Scottish manager Bob Kearsey said: ‘Grouville never stopped coming at us and full credit to them.
It was great to have a full squad to select from after injuries and holidays and we played with a good spirit.
‘We kept the ball well at times and scored some good goals.
Chris Andrews I thought was excellent while Mark Brown was as solid as a rock in midfield.
When we pass the ball quickly and run at teams we are superb and there aren’t many teams who can live with us when we do that.
‘But we still do too many little flicks here and there and more often than not that leads to us giving the ball away too easily.’ Grouville manager Ian Horswell said: ‘We conceded two sloppy goals last time we faced Scottish and we did the same again last night.
‘We were certainly not our usual selves, we played well in small patches but overall it was disappointing.
We were on top trailing 3-2 and they hit us on the counter-attack with two very good goals by Ross Crick.
We play First Tower on Saturday and we’ll be looking to bounce back then.’ Midfielder Russell Le Feuvre will miss the Tower game after being carried off last night with damaged ankle ligaments.
