MANAGER Gary Freeman has demanded that his Jersey Bulls side improve their mentality in matches such as the visit of Guildford City on Saturday.
Jersey Bulls have not won in their last three matches and have only taken the maximum three points in less than half of their 13 home games this season.
Their opponents, lying in 17th place in the Combined Counties Premier Division South, should provide the perfect fodder to kick-start their form and sustain a place in the promotion play-off places but, naturally, Freeman is cautious having seen too many points dropped at Springfield.
“It’s important we get back to winning ways,” said Freeman. “Guildford will be very similar to a lot of teams we’ve played recently: young and energetic. If you leave them in the game, they’ll always battle away.
“We’ve got a few games that are winnable over the next little period, so we need to take maximum points. It’s about making sure that we’ve got the right mentality from kick-off and we impose ourselves on the opposition; making sure they know they are in for a difficult game. We don’t want teams to come here and think they’re in for a nice day out but that’s probably what we haven’t done enough of this season on the home front.”
Part of Bulls’ recent malaise can be put down to missing personnel, but Freeman welcomes back defensive stalwarts James Querée and Luke Campbell, with Will Byers and Kamen Nafkha also returning. However, first-choice goalkeeper Euan Van Der Vliet and left-back Jay Giles remain missing with injury.
One aspect of Bulls’ struggles at home has been a lack of goals scored, with the Springfield faithful cheering just 19 in the league this season. Main striker Lorne Bickley has cut a lonely and isolated figure at times, while Bulls have found it hard to breach opposition defences that are happy to defend deep. To resolve this issue, Freeman believes his players need to offer more width to create more space on the pitch.
“We will be looking to create a lot of chances and get ahead early, so we can actually enjoy these games, rather than it being a bit tight and tense,” he added.
“It would be nice if we can actually have a real go. We want to stretch the opposition better than we have recently and make sure we have got a lot of width on the pitch.
“We’ve got to try and stretch teams wider and pull out their back four and create some spaces for us to get through the middle.”
Meanwhile, other clubs, such as Redhill and Tadley Calleva, are breathing down Bulls’ necks ready to take advantage of any more slip-ups.
“Everyone near the top still has to play each other. It’s going to be really tight, with a few swings and roundabouts,” Freeman continued. “We need to have a little spell where we winning two, three, four games and see what the others do.”
Jersey Bulls provisional squad: Pierce Roche, Will Byers, Frank Tobin, Fergus Boyle, James Querée (c), Luke Campbell, Harry Curtis, Sammy Sutcliffe, Joe Kilshaw, Ben Le Rougetel, Adam Trotter Kamen Nafkha, Luke Watson, Jonny Le Quesne, Ruben Mendes, Francis Lekimamati, Fraser Barlow, Miguel Carvalho, Lorne Bickley.
