Jersey Bulls 1
Barlow 30
Sandhurst Town 1
Seaman 48
Attendance: 544
Player of the match: Jonny Le Quesne
HOW Gary Freeman still has a full head of hair is something of a minor miracle. If it’s not the stress of the job, if he’s not pulling his hair out in frustration, surely there must a well-worn spot on his loaf from all the scratching. Jersey have long become a conundrum at home for which there appears to be no answer.
Here’s the poser. You are in control. You dominate in possession, have total territorial advantage throughout, you get in good positions to create and score chances. Technically, tactically, physically, everything is seemingly on point. But at the end of 90 minutes you’re left wondering why you haven’t won all three points.
Another home draw, an expensive fifth of the season to go along with three losses. They are the bare facts. Did Bulls play badly? No. But the same issues were exposed. The final pass, the final shot, the final bit of movement that can make a good chance into a better one. Or, at the other end of the pitch, that one ball over the top that catches the defence a little too square. What could be marginal gains end up marginal failures. It was all too much a familiar tale. And you know what they say about familiarity.
The Fizzers, though, are a different beast to the one that lay down and got tickled by the Bulls vintage in their invincible Beaujolais year of 2019-20 when they were both in Division One.
Sandhurst have the pick of the low-hanging fruit on offer by bigger clubs nearby, eager to give their promising players of the future experience of senior football. Amari Fashanu, formerly at Reading’s academy, and Ralph Vigrass are on loan from Southern Premier league side Bracknell Town, tenants at their Bottom Meadow ground. Both
combined to devastating effect for the visitors’ equaliser.
“That was the counter-attack of the season,” said Fashanu to his team-mates, as he served himself the post-match meal in the bar afterwards. It took just three passes, but it began from Fergus Boyle’s timid shot as Bulls probed for a second goal. Goalkeeper Harry Pidgeon threw the ball out to Vigrass on the right, who jinked past two players before picking out Fashunu with a long ball on the opposite wing. With his first touch he found himself on the corner of the box and laid a perfect pass for Harry Seaman to have the easiest of finishes at the far post.
If the execution of the counter-attack was razor sharp, then the timing of it – just three minutes into the second half – was a blunt concussive cosh to Bulls’ head.
Freeman had gone with the three-at-the-back, midfield-merry-go-round shape that had worked so well in the first 45 minutes of their 2-0 home win over Guildford City just the week before. It was going okay here too, with Bulls going into the break one-up thanks to Fraser Barlow’s headed goal on the half-hour mark. The visitors troubled their hosts early on, particularly from Seaman who had a good chance to score when he beat the offside trap, but Pierce Roche was quick to thwart him. Seaman then saw another effort well saved by Roche down low to his right.
Bulls settled, with Luke Watson, Jonny Le Quesne, Adam Trotter all rotating well in the centre of midfield, but Sandhurst were both disciplined in their containment and ill-disciplined enough, by the letter of the law, to spoil Bulls’ advances. Then Barlow got the breakthrough. Boyle threw in the kind of early cross in behind the opponents’ defence that we might think we should see more of. It teased Pidgeon enough to put him in a paradox of commitment and hesitation that left him flailing as Barlow’s header looped over him and just about worked it’s way over the line via the bar.
But Bulls know all too well about giving up good positions against this Sandhurst side after their see-saw encounter early on in the season that saw them come back from two goals down to go 4-2 up, only to concede again twice in stoppage time. As long as the Berkshire club remained in the hunt they were still a threat.
Bulls’ hopes for a clean sheet were quickly blemished by Seaman early in the second half, but there was still a lot of football to be played. Freeman, alive to the fact his high-lined defence was looking increasingly vulnerable, switched to a more familiar 4-3-3 and it was game on.
Carvalho had an excellent opportunity to put the home side back in the lead when he was played through by Trotter but he didn’t convince and his effort was easily saved. Fashunu then went close with a chipped effort. Le Quesne’s header was easily gathered by Pidgeon. Barlow hit a half-volley that just missed the target and, ultimately, Bulls just missed out on doing enough to win a home game again and build vital momentum to make a play-off push just that little more comfortable than it’s becoming.
Jersey Bulls: Pierce Roche, Harry Curtis, Luke Campbell, James Querée (c), Francis Lekimamati (Will Byers, 44), Luke Watson (Naka Nwokoro, 87), Jonny Le Quesne, Adam Trotter, Fergus Boyle (Callum Gilroy, 59), Miguel Carvalho, Fraser Barlow
Sandhurst Town: Harry Pidgeon, Kieran Brown, Callum Wright, Lewis Wilson, Harry Hamblin (c), Ben Harris, Ralph Vigrass (Oliver Turner, 88), Seb Linturn (Jamie Griggs, 80), Harry Seaman (Mason Slade, 70), Amari Fashanu (Charlie Lawrence, 84), Elliot Cannon (Luis Edwards, 63)
