A TYPICALLY nurturing Gary Freeman, had precious positives to draw from his side’s 1-1 stalemate against mid-table Camberley Town.
“As a collective, there was no one on that pitch I can say had a decent game,” exclaimed the manager in the wake of more dropped points in Jersey Bulls’ Combined Counties Premier Division South promotion push.
Cutting a frustrated figure on the far touchline, Freeman saw his side fall behind on the stroke of half-time, before substitute Miguel Carvalho fired into the top corner just shy of the hour mark.
However, the hosts offered very little in the way of attacking impetus to steal victory, something abundantly clear to their dejected coach.
“We need to take responsibility as a group and accept that level is nowhere near good enough,” said Freeman.
“If we are serious about promotion, we cannot afford to play like that.
“We can forget about being in a play-off spot if that is our level of desire from here on out.
“The lads share that opinion. They worked so hard to get a wonderful result away at Knaphill. The draw at Fleet was acceptable, but we had to go out there against Camberley and back up that win last weekend with a performance and we were a long way off it.
“I can’t stand here and tell you we deserved any more than we got from that game.”
The Islanders have their fair share of injury worries and absentees to deal with.
Jay Giles, deputising as captain in James Querée’s absence, recently returned to the fold, but he had to depart at half-time, as did winger Calvin Weir.
Along with Querée, fellow experienced squad members Luke Campbell, Euan Van Der Vliet and Adam Trotter were all unavailable against Camberley.
Freeman continued: “I looked out there today and asked to myself, where are our leaders?
“We do miss our experienced players. We lost a bit of that today and didn’t look like we wanted to fight.
“These are all wrongs that we have to right and that begins with Farnham [tomorrow].
“There is an overriding feeling in the dressing room that we let ourselves down and that doesn’t happen too often with this team.
“I am usually full of praise for the squad.
“It is not in their character to slack off and that is what is disappointing.
“Other people on the Island might criticise their attitude and work rate.
“But I spend a lot of time with these players and behind the scenes you can see how much this means to them.
“They sacrifice a lot of their own time for this team, while having jobs elsewhere.
“I think sometimes that can go unnoticed.”
If Freeman is after a response from his team tomorrow, they will need to be at their absolute best to take anything home from Farnham.
The runaway leaders have won 23 from as many games, amassing 87 goals, while only conceding 12 in response.
The gap to second-placed Knaphill is 12 points, but they have four games in hand over their nearest challengers.
The hope for Jersey supporters is that their talisman Lorne Bickley is ready to go from the outset, because they will need him at his clinical best to become the first side to take points off the superior Surrey side, since Camberley Town in April 2023.
