IT is somewhat of an alien feeling for Jersey Bulls’ trip to Tadley Calleva tomorrow, as the Islanders look to bounce back from a league defeat for the first time this campaign.
But “perspective is key”, as captain James Querée rightly mentioned.
An enthralling affair last weekend with leaders Whyteleafe in front of 1,033 fans ended in a 0-1 loss, but Elliot Powell and his men are still very well placed to mount a CCFL Premier Division South title charge.
Sitting in third, Jersey are seven points behind both second-placed Redhill and Whyteleafe, but still have two and four games in hand respectively over their promotion rivals.
The top two have still to face each other again, while the Bulls are yet to play Redhill, after fog put paid to their scheduled meeting in November.
The statistics for the Islanders still make for remarkable reading, conceding just 14 goals from 23 games, while netting 69 times down the other end of the pitch.
With the recent re-introduction of key players Adam Trotter and Lorne Bickley from travelling and the treatment table respectively, there are plenty of reasons to be bullish entering crunch time in the season.
While Bickley will not make the journey to Hampshire tomorrow, Trotter is named, along with full-back Jay Giles, another player plagued with injury in recent times.
The burden of flying to away games will be felt over the next week, as Powell and his charges are slated to play three away games in just seven days starting with tomorrow.
Abbey Rangers come next on Tuesday in a re-scheduled clash, ahead of next Saturday’s tussle with Tooting & Mitcham.
All three of Jersey’s opponents are currently in the top half of the table.
Captain Querée, who has been at the heart of the side’s excellent defensive season, is well aware of the threat all three teams can pose.
“They are all sides that will be thereabouts come the end of the season in terms of the play-off places.
“Obviously the weather forecast is looking a little iffy, so we will have to see re the conditions and potential water-logged pitches, but we have prepared the same and are ready for the fact we have three matches planned in seven days.
“Those factors are out of our control.
“But we have trained really well this week. There were plenty of positives to take from the Whyteleafe defeat.
“Of course it’s raw straight after a loss and it takes a few days to digest, but everyone is really driven to using it as a springboard to bounce back and get three points at Tadley.
“It’s important to have some perspective. We are all very competitive and any loss stings, but the chances of going the whole season unbeaten were very slim in a quality league.
“We’ve acknowledged that and dusted ourselves off. There certainly isn’t any hangover from last week and we are ready to focus on tomorrow.”
Jersey Bulls squad to face Tadley Calleva: Euan Van Der Vliet, Adam Trotter, Francis Lekimamati, Fraser Barlow, Harry Curtis, James Querée (c), Jay Giles, Joe Kilshaw, Jonny Le Quesne, Karl Hinds, Kieran Lester, Luke Campbell, Luke Watson, Rai Dos Santos, Toby Ritzema.
