WITH just seven weeks of the regular season remaining, Jersey Bulls still have a lot of football left to secure a place in the play-off positions. But it should be much less exhausting than the previous two seasons, where Bulls paid the price for a backlog of fixtures, both campaigns sizzling out in the heat of so many taxing midweek away games.
At this point last season, they still had 12 games left to play. The season before, it was 15. But, starting with Sandhurst Town at Springfield tomorrow, Bulls “just” have the nine matches left to play to keep their promotion chances alive, with a lone midweek fixture.
It has still been a long slog for the players. The Island Games last summer afforded precious time off between seasons and injuries have taken their toll. Bulls are still missing Euan Van Der Vliet and Jay Giles, while Lorne Bickley will be absent tomorrow as he recovers from a minor hamstring injury. However, skipper James Querée, who has also missed his share of the season with a hamstring injury, feels the team are going into the end feeling a lot fresher, with points on the board rather than games in hand to catch up with.
“I think we have reaped the rewards of doing a lot of the heavy lifting already and having a lot of away games earlier in the season,” said Querée. “We’re in a good position, with a run of three home games now. It’s just about building on this last couple of results and putting a performance together that warrants another three points.
“It’s good that it is within our control and we’re not relying on other results. We’ve got to be focused on what we do.”
Unfortunately for Bulls, gaining automatic promotion is virtually impossible with Farnham Town running away with things at the top winning all of their 24, and second place now only guarantees a play-off spot, though Bulls can get the comfort of knowing that third, fourth and fifth place does too.
There has been one benefit to Bulls’ injury problems, with the squad gaining strength in depth with new, young, players being blooded in. One example has been 17-year-old Fergus Boyle, who has stepped in comfortably at left back, while his St Paul’s under-18s team-mate, Callum Gilroy, made his debut for the club on Tuesday night, coming on as a second-half substitute in the 2-1 win at Sheerwater.
“It was probably the longest I’ve ever been out in my career with this hamstring issue, which is still there but I’m able to manage it now. We’ve been missing players with lots of experience but that provided opportunities for other players to come in and step up. That’s the evolution of the club right there,” Querée continued.
“It’s good to see the likes of those lads come in and have growth within the team. It’s also a credit to the talent pool of players available on the Island. In the UK, a lot of teams tend to strengthen. Take Sheerwater on Tuesday. Gary [Freeman] said they’ve made about 80 signings this season but on the other side, we’ve got a squad that know each other very well and we can put out a strong 16 every week.”
Jersey Bulls: Pierce Roche, James Querée, Luke Campbell, Harry Curtis, Ben Le Rougetel, Fergus Boyle, Will Byers, Sammy Sutcliffe, Kamen Nafkha, Joe Kilshaw, Adam Trotter, Luke Watson, Jonny Le Quesne, Francis Lekimamati, Miguel Carvalho, Fraser Barlow, Naka Nwokoro
