UNBEATEN in their campaign so far, Jersey Bulls travel to Surrey tomorrow to take on low-lying Balham, currently occupying 18th spot in the Combined Counties Premier Division South.
Despite not tasting defeat, Bulls manager Elliot Powell confessed: “It’s been quite a frustrating start for us.
“We flew out the traps in the first couple of games, but have just been ground to a halt a little bit.
“The squad have got pretty high expectations of themselves.
“I think we are frustrated we couldn’t put the ball in the net against Horley [Town] and couldn’t quite overcome the two-goal deficit against Alton.
“But we still picked up something in those games, and didn’t come out on the complete wrong side of it.
“So it’s not all doom and gloom at all.
“We’re unbeaten still, so spirits are high.”
Considering three out of the four fixtures for Powell’s side thus far have been away, remaining undefeated is quite the achievement.
“From a sheer playing perspective, it’s frustrating that all these games are away,” the manager admitted.
“We understand that it’s obviously better for us financially to go away early season.
“But you know, we want to be in front of the home crowd as often as we can. Teams don’t want to lose, especially at home in front of their support.
“It is difficult, but it’ll flip at some point, and we’ll get our chance to play at Springfield.”
Having squared off twice last season, the Jersey side came away with points on both occasions.
Away at Imperial Fields last campaign, the Islanders came out on top with a 2-0 victory.
More recently though, Balham battled back from 1-0 down at Springfield Stadium, to secure a 1-1 draw.
This season, both squads have emerged victorious against Spelthorne Sports, as Powell’s Bulls side ran riot 6-1, while Balham edged past with a 2-1 scoreline.
Speaking about his team’s upcoming opponents, Powell is expecting a unique challenge.
“They’re quite a young side,” he said.
“They’ll try and play out from the back.
“A lot of the sides in this league are direct, but Balham try and play, what I consider to be, football. So we’re really looking forward to that.”
Ahead of their upcoming clash, Bulls are missing some key players in the shape of Jay Giles, Karl Hinds, and Rai Dos Santos, but other than that the manager believes his squad is at “pretty much full strength”.
As a new manager, Powell stated: “We’ve made some subtle changes.
“I think we look quite effective, but we’re not 100% of the way there. There’s a few things I’m currently working on with the guys so it’s probably going to take us a few months to be fully where we want to be.
“But there’s been some really positive signs early on.”
Content with his players’ efforts both on and off the pitch, Powell concluded: “We’re not here for two or three months looking for instant success.
“This is a longer-term project, and we feel like there’s some good foundations in place in the first couple of months.”
