St George’s have completed Manx football’s Grand Slam for an unprecedented third time after beating Peel in the Craig Heartstrong Foundation Hospital Cup final.

Having already clinched the Canada Life Premier League plus the Paddy Power FA Cup and the Cu-Plas Railway Cup, the Saints were favourite to secure a clean sweep of trophies for the third time in only five years, therefore surpassing the two Grand Slams achieved by both themselves and rivals Peel.

Chris Bass Sr’s men got off to a near-perfect start by taking the lead after only 13 minutes, Ciaran McNulty latching onto a ball over the top before rounding the Peel goalkeeper and slotting home to open the scoring.

Any hopes that the early goal would ease any nerves and open the game up were unfortunately unfounded as the final descended into a scrappy affair, with neither side able to get into their stride and chances proving few and far between.

Furo Davies and Joey Morling both went close for Geordies while Kerron Christian was close to an equaliser for Peel after good work from Matty Woods and Andy Crennell, but the score remained 1-0 at half-time.

After the break the game continued in much the same vein, with a raft of substitutions and stoppages disrupting the flow of the contest.

The westerners went nearly grabbed an equaliser following a goalmouth scramble in the Geordies area and a series of long balls into the Saints defensive third kept the Saints backline on their toes.

However, after skipper Frank Jones had poked just wide for Geordies, the Glencrutchery Road side wrapped up the win in the 86th minute when sub Calum Morrissey headed home Jack McVey’s cross to seal an historic third Grand Slam.

Full report in Tuesday’s Isle of Man Examiner.