SECURING a play-off position isn’t enough for Gary Freeman and his Jersey Bulls team. A win tomorrow at Tooting & Mitcham United should pretty much make that a done deal. But there is incentive to finish second too.
Not only will it make it the best performance for the club over a season in the Premier Division South of the Combined Counties League, it will also guarantee that the semi-final and final of the play-offs, should they get there, are played in front of a home crowd at Springfield.
Knaphill currently occupy second place, with Bulls four points behind, but with a game in hand.
Stormzy-owned Croydon Athletic also look like securing a play-off place having made a late dart following the acquisition of a number of players from higher leagues, while any one of five teams could take up the remaining one place.
For now, Freeman and his team are fully focused on what’s in hand at Tooting followed by three home games against Horley Town, Fleet Town and Spelthorne Sports.
“We’ve got a big seven days, with three games in a week, where we can just nail it in and make sure we’re in [the play-offs]. We’ve got to make sure we keep winning games because the others look like they are as well,” said Freeman.
“I’d like to finish second on the basis we get a home semi-final and a home final, which would be great. We haven’t finished second before either, so it would be nice to go that next step and keep building.
“Tooting won’t be easy. They’ve been a bit hit or miss but have had some good results against top teams. We’ve got to make sure we do what we’ve been doing in these last few games.”
Bulls have only lost once in the league, against runaway champions Farnham Town, since coming unstuck 2-1 at home to Alton in the first week of the new year.
And, while their form remained inconsistent with a number of draws, Freeman feels his team are in the perfect position to continue their momentum into securing promotion, with only one player, Sammy Sutcliffe, unavailable through injury.
“We’ve got a solid team and the squad is in a real strong place,” added Freeman. “Everyone’s available and it makes for difficult decisions but that’s exactly what we want at this stage of the season.”
Kick off is scheduled for 3pm at Imperial Fields.
Jersey Bulls squad: Pierce Roche, Euan Van Der Vliet, James Querée (c), Will Byers, Jay Giles, Fergus Boyle, Harry Curtis, Luke Campbell, Ben Le Rougetel, Kamen Nafkha, Luke Watson, Adam Trotter, Ruben Mendes, Jonny Le Quesne, Fraser Barlow, Francis Lekimamati, Lorne Bickley.
