The ‘Bulls’ have it
We made our longest journey of the season over to Jersey to play the ‘Bulls’ at their home stadium at Springfield.
The weather was the same as back home with temperatures in the low 30’s this would make it difficult for both teams to play any type of free flowing football in this attritional heat. The home team had designated this game as match with a Caribbean theme with many supporters turning up in bright coloured attire to match the weather. In the fan zone we were entertained by a 8 girl singing group who were very good and helped create the Caribbean vibe. It must be reported that the ‘Bulls’ hierarchy welcomed us just like the weather; very warmly.
We made a couple of changes to the team that lost in the FA Cup the previous weekend with Ollie Thompson and Ayan Kugarthis returning to the starting line up.
The game started at a very slow pace due to the intense heat and by far the busier goalkeeper was our one, Harvey Keough who made a few last ditch saves to keep the scoreline goalless. As for ourselves our attacks were very few and far between. One other notable feature of the first half was just after the first water break the referee went to both benches to explain that the heat was affecting his eyesight and was replaced by one of the assistant referees. The half ended 0-0.
As anyone involved in football will tell you that it is imperative not to concede early in the second half and to keep it tight. Unfortunately, this did not happen for us and soon after the break after we did not clear a corner a deflected shot went into our net. We found ourselves 1-0 down. In the intense heat we all knew that this might prove to be very difficult to get back into the match and it proved to be so with the ‘Bulls’ increasing their lead with around 10 minutes to go after a break. We again had not conjured up any real chances of note apart from a possible attack that was thwarted by an offside flag which the vast majority of the crowd even the home fans could not see as it being the right decision with Ethan Nelson-Roberts bearing down on the home goalkeeper to try to equalise. And so it ended 2-0 to our hosts.
It was another disappointing result which leaves us still pointless at the foot of the table. We have a must win game at home to Sheerwater at the Reg Madgwick stadium next weekend with a 3pm kick off.
