Jersey Bulls have already earned promotion with 11 games to go but manager Gary Freeman knows there’ll still be work to do to claim an unprecedented treble if the season ever restarts.
The Channel Islands club have made incredibly light work of the Combined Counties Division One in their first season of existence by winning all 27 of their league games.
Jersey Bulls smashed a new league record on Saturday 7 March by beating British Airways 2-0 to surpass Withdean’s 26 consecutive victories achieved in the 2002-03 season.
At the same time, knowing a top-four finish in the Step 6 league would earn promotion, it meant they had guaranteed a spot in the Premier Division next season.
“The way the league has gone it’s looked for a while like we should achieve promotion,” boss Freeman told The Non-League Paper this week. “It’s an old cliché but whenever we speak to the players we just get them to focus on the game ahead. They’ve been really good.
“Other people have mentioned records and even promotion but that hasn’t interested me, we just need to focus on each game. Otherwise you start getting ahead of yourselves. We need to try and carry that on and not get carried away with records and things.
“As a group of players and coaching staff we haven’t really had time to celebrate it. Hopefully, if we get the title we can enjoy that evening.”
Jersey need, at most, four more wins to secure the title with their nearest rivals Farnham Town sitting 20 points behind.
Before the outbreak of the coronavirus, cup success had been on their minds with a Division One Challenge Cup semi-final at FC Deportivo Galicia to come later this month.
Business end
That clash should have followed a Challenge Cup tie quarter-final at Ascot United, the Premier Division leaders, last Tuesday night before the Combined Counties took the decision to suspend the competition for two weeks last Friday.
“It would have beeen interesting to play them and see where we are, get a little gauge of what might be the level next year,” explained Freeman.
“We want to make sure we get over the line with the title and see how we go in the cup competitions.
“We knew we’d be competitive, we knew how Guernsey had gone in this league previously and we know our standard is pretty similar to them based on the Muratti competitions we have with them but you still don’t expect to go totally unbeaten to this point.”
Jersey Bulls 27-game winning streak
3 August Ash United 3-0 (h)
14 August Deportivo Galicia 6-0 (a)
17 August Godalming Tn 5-0 (a)
25 August Fleet Spurs 4-0 (h)
26 August Westside 1-0 (a)
7 September Bagshot 7-1 (h)
14 September Kensington & Ealing Boro 5-1 (a)
21 September Eversley & California 5-1 (h)
28 September AFC Hayes 2-1 (a)
5 October Sandhurst Town 4-1 (h)
12 October British Airways 4-0 (a)
19 October Walton and Hersham 1-0 (h)
2 November Dorking Wanderers Res 5-0 (h)
9 November Bedfont and Feltham 3-0 (a)
16 November Epsom and Ewell 2-0 (h)
23 November Cove 7-0 (h)
30 November Farnham Tn 4-0 (h)
7 December Tooting Bec 1-0 (a)
14 December Godalming Tn 2-0 (h)
28 December Farnham Tn 2-0 (a)
4 January Cove 1-0 (a)
25 January AFC Hayes 7-2 (h)
1 February Chessington & Hook Utd 6-0 (h)
8 February Walton & Hersham 3-0 (a)
15 February Kensington & Ealing Boro 4-0 (h)
22 February Bedfont and Feltham 3-0 (h)
7 March British Airways 2-0 (h)
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Image courtesy of @jersey_bulls/Twitter
