Cobham 0
Jersey Bulls 0
Attendance: 85
Player of the match: Luke Watson
JERSEY Bulls continued their superb unbeaten start to the 2024-25 CCFL Premier Division South campaign after a hard-fought draw at fellow play-off contenders Cobham.
Elliot Powell’s men have been severely hampered with injuries through the opening couple of months of the season, but they remain just one of two unbeaten sides in the league and sit comfortably in the play-off spots.
Despite a lack of real clear-cut chances from either side throughout, the Bulls left Cobham with a record to their name, with their sixth consecutive clean sheet the most in the history at Step 5 of the English football pyramid.
Powell, still relatively young in his managerial career, has always maintained high standards in the way he speaks of his side.
However, the 26-year-old managed a smile as he confessed that the is a record he and his team are proud of.
“There’s no getting away from it, six clean sheets in-a-row is an excellent effort,” said Powell, right.
“Cobham are a good team, they’re well put together and this was a real challenging away day for us.
“I’d rather look at it as a well-earned point, rather than two points dropped.
“Neither side had too many clear-cut chances, although I thought we did have a couple of chances that, on another day, might have nicked it for us.
“But our back line was absolutely superb once again, with Luke Watson in midfield earning his man-of-the-match award. He marshalled that midfield brilliantly and linked up from the back, he really stepped up as a leader in this game and was massive for us.”
The one dampener on the day was, incredibly, yet another injury as the unfortunate Jack Boyle limped off with ten minutes remaining in the first-half.
The injury list continues to grow, highlighting just how impressive the Islanders’ results are, as well as the man management from Powell and his coaching team.
Emphasising how impressive their current form has been, skipper James Querée was quick to compliment his teams’ work ethic.
“That was a really well-earned point. A proper away day performance I thought.
“Cobham are a really good outfit and they made us work really hard for that.
“They’ve strengthened over recent seasons, as you can tell from their recent performances, notably being the first team this season to beat Redhill.
“Usually we would never be happy with a point, but considering the circumstances of this game, especially with Jack [Boyle] picking up a knock, we’re happy with this one.
“I think the draw was probably a fair result in the end.”
Powell and co can now look forward to back-to-back home games, first against struggling Chipstead, followed by a tough test of third-placed Knaphill.
“We’re looking forward to a couple of home games,” the skipper concluded.
“We always love the buzz of our home fans and the next two fixtures are massive for us.
“Especially the Knaphill one, if we can get past Chipstead and then make a statement against another promotion rival in Knaphill, we will be making huge strides forward.
“We’re building momentum and, hopefully with some injured lads coming back into the fold soon, we can keep mounting that charge up the league.”
Cobham: Conrad Knight, Ryan MacLean, Remi Myers, Jake Boyer, Hakeem Gbadamassi, Charles Alexiou (c), Patrick Murray, Ryan Marklew, Elijah Simpson, Derick Hayford, Jacob De Sa. Substitutes: Ashby Charles (not used), Nic Osborne (for Murray 74), Reis Stanislaus (for De Sa 74), Oscar Billington (for Marklew 68), Louis Toussaint (not used)
Jersey Bulls: Euan Van Der Vliet, Joe Kilshaw, Fraser Barlow, James Querée (c), Sammy Sutcliffe, Luke Watson, Rai Dos Santos, Toby Ritzema, Karl Hinds, Jack Boyle, Miguel Carvalho. Substitutes: Fergus Boyle (not used), Seaney McColgan (for Dos Santos 81), Kieran Lester (for Boyle 38).
