Reds Athletic affiliate with Jersey FA

Reds Athletic affiliate with Jersey FA

Although Athletic will not be joining the league structure, they plan to play a series of friendlies with other established JFA clubs as and when guidelines allow and covid-19 restrictions are eventually lifted.

There remains great uncertainty as to when Athletic will be able to resume playing competitive rugby again in The Raging Bull Shield league in England. Therefore, to tide the boys over, head coach Myles Landick is looking for his team to get their competitive kicks on the football pitch and keep them in good shape until the rugby is ready to start again.

‘Mental and physical well-being are hugely important, keeping that competitive edge while staying active and fit is what the lads look forward to and of course the social that comes with it. We don’t have a start date yet for rugby but seems it still could be a while off,’ said Landick. ‘For us, as an amateur side, the best case scenario is looking 28 November, worst case scenario is mid-February. It’s a long way away, hence why we have to take up some other sports.

‘We’ve already had about seven messages from clubs wanting to give us a game,’ added Landick. ‘We are looking for our first fixture to be against the newly formed St Brelade C team at their pitch on 22 August. We’re probably aiming for about ten to 12 football fixtures in all, which we will announce in the coming weeks. We’d also like to thank Dave Kennedy, Tim Pryor and Jonathon Le Fondre at the JFA for their help with the process.’

Having took to the cricket oval the other week in a friendly against Jersey Bulls, its not likely Landick’s boys will be challenging them to a football match anytime soon as well, but he’s still confident that Athletic could give some of the JFA Combination Championship and Division I teams a run for their money.

‘We’ve got a couple of lads who are decent players. We’ve got Scott McClurg who was a St Paul’s boy. Mark Boarer is quite a good sportsman, Richie Stevens put on the boots for Grouville now and then,’ said Landick. ‘We have overs and unders game every year at Christmas time and that is always very competitive. So I think against some of the reserve and C teams we’ll do okay and then we’ll try and get a game against a Championship side and see if we can get a scalp.’

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