GARY FREEMAN is confident that his defence can deal with the threat posed by the brother of a Premier League star tomorrow – and is hoping Jersey Bulls can put on a show for the Springfield faithful.
With works escalating at the stadium as they move the perimeter fencing, Bulls’ clash with Raynes Park Vale [4pm kick-off] is set to be their last at home until 2 April at the earliest as they charge towards promotion from Combined Counties Premier Division South.
However, sixth-placed Raynes Park will be looking to upset their hopes and in Jordan Gallagher they boast the league’s leading scorer, with 22 goals this season.
With older brother Josh in charge of the west-London team, football ability really is a family affair. Their other sibling, Conor, is a fully-capped England international, currently lighting up the Premier League with Crystal Palace, on loan from Chelsea.
Bulls were held to a 1-1 draw when the sides met in October, after Sol Solomon’s 88th-minute equaliser.
‘He’s [Jordan Gallagher] got a lot of goals and in our last game against them he scored from quite far out, near the halfway line,’ admitted Bulls boss Freeman. ‘He’s got good technique, good skills and is one to watch.
‘But I think with the defensive line we’ve got; they all experienced, they’re all good defenders. People like Luke Campbell, James Quérée, Frank Tobin and Jay Giles, they’re all more than capable of doing a job on someone.’
Bulls themselves also carry a dual scoring threat in Solomon and Lorne Bickley, who have scored 19 and 14 league goals respectively this term. And, with everyone fit and available, Freeman admits he has a difficult decision to make to lead the line, as Kieran Lester, Fraser Barlow, Karl Hinds, Jake Prince and Daryl Wilson are also in contention.
‘There’s a lot of competition out there,’ added Freeman. ‘There’s different ways we can play. We’ve got players with all sorts of different attributes.’
Bulls currently lie third in the league, five points behind the leaders Beckenham Town but with two games in hand. Beckenham travel to fifth-placed Redhill tomorrow for what could be a tough assignment.
Freeman believes there will be a lot more dropped points among the top teams before the season’s over.
‘Everyone has still got to play everyone, so there’s a long way to go,’ he said.
‘The run of games we’ve got now [at least six successive games on the road, after this weekend], you see as a bit of a challenge but we’d prefer to be playing a lot of games than training.’
Jersey Bulls: Euan Van Der Vliet, Luke Duncan, Sammy Sutcliffe, Frank Tobin, Jay Giles, James Quérée, Luke Campbell, Jonny Le Quesne, Kamen Nafkha, Adam Trotter, Joe Kilshaw, Ruben Mendes, Sol Solomon, Fraser Barlow, Karl Hinds, Lorne Bickley, Jake Prince, Daryl Wilson, Kieran Lester.
CCL Premier Division South
P W D L F A Diff Pts
Beckenham Town 25 20 3 2 65 21 44 63
Walton & Hersham 27 19 5 3 67 23 44 62
Jersey Bulls 23 18 4 1 65 14 51 58
Badshot Lea 25 15 8 2 71 31 40 53
Redhill 26 15 6 5 60 29 31 51
Raynes Park Vale 23 15 4 4 63 29 34 49
Sheerwater 30 13 4 13 57 62 -5 43
Horley Town 26 13 3 10 49 48 1 42
Guildford City 27 10 6 11 45 48 -3 36
Cobham 27 9 8 10 41 39 2 35
Camberley Town 29 10 4 15 31 46 -15 34
Balham 25 10 3 12 38 36 2 33
Farnham Town 29 9 6 14 52 58 -6 33
Knaphill 27 6 11 10 43 54 -11 29
Colliers Wood 27 8 3 16 31 50 -19 27
Fleet Town 27 8 1 18 41 62 -21 25
Frimley Green 24 7 2 15 25 54 -29 23
Croydon Athletic 26 4 9 13 31 64 -33 21
Banstead Athletic 25 3 5 17 28 68 -40 14
Molesey 30 2 5 23 25 92 -67 11
