Guernsey FC reaped the rewards for changing things up against Ashford Town in a win that saw them climb out of the relegation zone.

It was only 11 days ago that they were on the wrong end of a 5-0 hammering by the same opposition on the road.

Having learnt the lesson from that game, when Ashford arrived at Footes Lane there was a different approach from the Green Lions and it netted them a 1-0 win and another vital three points.

“It was important we physically matched them,” said GFC coach Kevin Gilligan, speaking on the club’s media channel.

“Last time, they got in behind us a lot and scored from a number of cutbacks. So we spoke about that a lot.

“We changed our game plan. We figured they were probably going to do the same again.

“So we were more prepared. I said before the game, maybe they surprised us and surprised us as coaches, and we should have been ahead of that a little bit better. Well, we made the changes and we’ve got a right today.”

There was little to write home about in the first half with few chances for either side.

GFC put themselves in front on 55 minutes through a familiar source.

Charlton Gauvain and Niall Hainsworth combined on the right and Gauvain delivered for Fin du Port in the area. After a tidy first touch, du Port drove the ball straight at Ashworth’s goalkeeper Brzozowski, who beat it away.

It only went as far as Ross Allen, who rolled it into the bottom corner.

Offside denied Guernsey a second five minutes later, with Allen deemed to have run a fraction too early as he collected a Jamie Dodd’s quick free-kick and centred low for Sam Murray to slide home.

Guernsey FC continued to press for a second.

A lovely first-time ball from Murray set Gauvain through on goal on 79 minutes. But his low shot from the angle bounced off the foot of the far post.

There were half chances at either end, but it finished with a clean sheet for GFC, only their second of the season and achieved with 18 year old debutant goalkeeper Will Seeley, who only signed as cover from the AFC Bournemouth academy the night before.

“We’ve got a tough couple of games now against first and second coming up on Wednesday and Saturday, both away. But who knows, sometimes we surprise people. After that, though, we’ve got a really big run of games in early February, which are all winnable games.”

GFC play Kingstonian on Wednesday and league leaders Farnham Town on Saturday.