GARY Freeman believes his Jersey Bulls team need to show a little more patience to prevent being caught on the counter attack.
Games are coming thick and fast for Bulls and they are in action again tomorrow night when they travel to Balham.
Tomorrow’s match, which kicks off at 7.45pm, gives the team an immediate chance to put things right after they fell to a 4-2 defeat at Tadley Cadeva on Saturday. As well as showing vulnerability on the counter, individual errors and a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal were the take-home messages from the loss.
Freeman doesn’t believe there is a need to panic yet and has urged his team to bounce back and get on a run that can push them towards promotion from the Combined Counties Premier Division South.
‘We’ve got to get the season going. That’s what we’ve got to do now. We’re only three games in, so it’s not all doom and gloom,’ he said.
‘The pleasing things is we’re creating plenty of chances but it’s about getting ahead and managing these games. You don’t want to be chasing games against these teams who are very experienced at locking things up when they’ve got something to hang on to and making it difficult.
‘I don’t think there’s too much we need to change, we just need to do the basics better and make sure we give ourselves a foundation and then figure out just how far our full-backs go forward. We don’t want to be chasing the game like we did on Saturday. We might just have to be a bit more patient, accept that we’re not going to win the game in the first five or ten minutes and make sure we’re still in the game.’
It’s been a hard start to the season for Bulls but while Tadley were always going to be a tough proposition, no one would have expected the game to pan out quite as it did.
The hosts were one-up within ten minutes when Connor Thorne flicked a corner into the net with his heel. Whether it was against the run of play is a moot point. Carelessness will be punished at most levels of football and Bulls were punished again just three minutes later when the normally reliable Frank Tobin got caught out, allowing Alex Miller to fire past Euan Van Der Vliet.
Bulls had created their own mountain to climb. And, in the end, it was too high to surmount.
A reply from Jake Mulholland after excellent work from Rai dos Santos should have given them the leg-up they needed but within an instant they were sent tumbling down again when Kieran Rogers’ deflected shot found its way into the net.
Bulls were still creating chances but, as has become the theme of the season, they just weren’t clinical enough to capitalise. Tadley were. An early goal from Ben Le Rougetel quickly after the restart once again gave false hope and Bulls were to curse their luck when Francis Lekimamati’s shot came back off the crossbar and post. Tadley then scored a fourth through Miller and, although there was still a good 40 minutes left, it was game over.
‘A lot of things didn’t go very well and not a lot went right,’ admitted Bulls’ assistant manager Kevan Nelson, who took the team in Freeman’s absence.
‘We were compounding issues we already had. We’ve been struggling since day one of the season to get the right team out at the right time with injuries and whatever else. The FA Cup definitely has not helped us. And I just think we’re in that little bit of a rush. A few things need to turn and there is a little bit we need to do better. We need to be a bit more clinical and do more good stuff, which is just not what we’re doing.’
Freeman, who returns to the dugout tomorrow, agreed: ‘We’ve got to try and improve very quickly.’
Bulls’ chances are also improved by the return of Harry Curtis, Fraser Barlow and Adam Trotter. Sammy Sutcliffe also returns to the squad while Seaney McColgan is another new addition who has impressed recently for St Peter and Bulls’ U18s. However, the side travel tomorrow without Luke Campbell, Ben Le Rougetel and Kamen Nafkha.
‘It will turn and I do feel there is a good performance in us and a good run. We just need a few players back,’ added Nelson.
‘We’re more resilient than we were last season and we know what we need to do.’
