The match saw Guernsey wear their England strips for the first time

Guernsey's footballers' first fixture in an England strip ended in defeat on Saturday, but their coach thinks the defeat will make them stronger.

Guernsey are representing England in the Uefa Regions Cup, with qualifying round matches in Croatia this month.

The 5-2 defeat in a warm-up match against a Republic of Ireland amateur side in Dublin was the island team's first in about 18 months.

But coach Tony Vance said it had given them areas to work on for Croatia.

Simon Tostevin and Ross Allen scored a goal each

He said: "We've got our own style of play and because they were so good they sussed that out very early on, so we need to have a plan B.

"This week in training we've been working on all sorts of stuff, which will help us in the tournament.

"If we didn't have that game, we probably would have carried on as we were thinking that all was well, so it's a wake-up call for us.

"We now know we need some extra bits in certain areas to help us cope with this tournament."

Ross Allen and Simon Tostevin were the two scorers for the island side.

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