THE future is bright for Jersey Bulls, with manager Gary Freeman again highlighting how impressed he is by the generation of players coming through.
Freeman’s first-team squad tends to pick itself each week, but he believes he will be looking to call on some of the U23 players as the season wears on and is confident that they will be looking to stake a place in the first XI in the coming years.
The club’s U23s beat Metropolitan Police Reserves on penalties this week, following a 3-3 draw in the quarter-finals of the Suburban League Challenge Cup.
‘To be in semi-final of what is a difficult competition is great for these young lads,’ said Freeman, who won the 2021 Coach of the Year accolade at the CI Sports Awards on Thursday night.
‘Looking at it, there are definitely players we will use in the run up. Robert Martins-Figueira did very well. We don’t want to interfere in what he’s doing at Grouville but we’ll try and get him involved. You’ve still got Sammy Sutcliffe and Jack Lumsden, who has been with us before, and the likes of Rai dos Santos. There’s a core group who have played for the first team, so it’s very promising. There’s no reason why these young lads can’t push on in the next year or two.’
Nevertheless, his squad for Saturday’s trip to Camberley Town is, unsurprisingly, a familiar one. Adam Trotter is back after recovering from injury but Fraser Barlow has to drop out with a knock – opening the door for Jake Prince to keep his place in the starting line-up after scoring once against Sheerwater last weekend and twice for the U23s on Wednesday.
Bulls beat Camberley 3-1 at home in December, with Freeman watching from home on a livestream while in Covid-related isolation.
‘They are a young and energetic team and it’s important we impose ourselves on them and concentrate on the job we’ve got to do,’ he added.
‘It’s going to be difficult conditions. No doubt their pitch has taken a bit of a hammering with all the storms but we’ve just got to make sure we’re ready for that.
‘We’ve got a lot of good, strong players with different attributes who give you different options. We’ve got players who can cover all positions [and] Jake Prince and Lorne Bickley will cause problems with their physicality. It’s a nice blend that we can mix and match when required.
‘We’ll have a look at the conditions when we get to the ground and make a final decision.’
The match kicks off at 3pm and is being streamed live via the club’s website, www.bulls.je.
