Jersey Bulls
2 - 0
Combined Counties Division One
British Airways
Saturday March 7, 2020, 3:00 pm
Springfield Stadium
Combined Counties Division One
Jersey Bulls 2, British Airways 0; Saturday 7thMarch 2020
The day started with Bulls having an outside chance of clinching promotion. For this they needed to win and have Sandhurst lose as well as two other matches to take place where one or the other team in each of them would drop points.
As it happened it was known before the delayed kick off that promotion would also be delayed as one of the vital matches had been postponed in the morning. The Bulls match delay having ironically been caused by the late arrival of the British Airways ‘plane carrying the visitors.
Fraser Barlow, Harry Cardwell and Kamen Nafkhaall on the bench last time out started the match,along with Jules Gabbiadini back from holiday.British Airways came in to the game with just two league wins from their last sixteen matches and having dropped to 17th in the division.
Early play was concentrated on the B.A. goal but was often too intricate to break down the well organised opposition defence which may have been more stretched by playing down the wings.
It took a set piece goal to break the deadlock when a Jay Giles corner was met with a powerful Luke Campbell header which cannoned back off the crossbar on to the head of the onrushing Barlow who finished off the job. Barlow had another shot well saved by Charlie Rose who then did even better a minute later to dive at the feet of Adam Trotter to prevent a contender for goal of the season after his mazy run through the defence.
Whilst B.A. were largely penned in their own halfthey threatened to score on the break on a couple of occasions with their two best chances both falling to Edward Simons in the third quarter of the match. Firstly Campbell made a superb tackle todeny his break and then Simons’ twenty yard shot just cleared the bar.
With twenty minutes left Ruben Mendes-Pestanaand Zeljko Martinovic were brought on in a double substitution as the Bulls continued to search for the vital second goal. Both made an impact with a Mendes-Pestana close range header bringing out another excellent save from Rose before Martinovic wrapped up matters with seven minutes remaining as he swept home a cross from the right first time for the Bulls 99th league goal of the campaign.
The century of goals eluded the team in the final few minutes but this win was the Bulls 27thconsecutive league victory to set a new record for the Combined Counties League, breaking that set by Withdean from 28th September 2002 to 15thApril 2003.
Jersey Bulls
Euan Van der Vliet, Jules Gabbiadini, Jay Giles, James Queree(c), Luke Campbell, Kamen Nafkha,Harry Cardwell, Adam Trotter, Daryl Wilson, Karl Hinds, Fraser Barlow
Substitutes
Ruben Mendes-Pestana for Hinds 71, ZjelkoMartinovic for Cardwell also 71, Kieran Lester for Barlow 89
Not Used
Jonny Le Quesne, Bradley Rolland (GK)
British Airways
Charlie Rose, Adam Green, Josh Quadry, Callum Bennett(c), Mustafa Khatoun, Peter Parfitt, Josh Zend, Jake Morten, Edward Simons, Jordan Haynes, Shaun Aram
Substitutes
Lewis Nobes for Aram 62, Gibson Pasma for Zend 78, Daniel Shelbourne for Simons 79
Not Used
Ryan Nobes, Steve Richards
Officials
William Siegmund (Woking, Sy), Chris Murray (Wandsworth, Sy), Michael Oakes (Uxbridge, Mx)
Cautions/Sin Bins
None for either side
Corners
Jersey Bulls 10 (7, 12, 20, 40, 40, 49, 66, 70, 77, 77), British Airways 0
Goals
Jersey Bulls 2 (Barlow 21, Martinovic 83), British Airways 0
Attendance
769 (the fifth successive increase)
Man of the Man Award
Kamen Nafkha
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