Sorry, Jurgen, Jersey are the. . . REAL INVINCIBLES!
TWENTY-fivE minutes before kick- off, Jersey Bulls manager Gary freeman is taking questions from the floor in the Springfield Stadium’s hospitality room.
One of the guests asks: ‘So with all the success you’ve been having this season, has Jurgen Klopp been on the phone asking for advice?’ Everyone collapses into laughter.
Sorry Liverpool, your record of 24 wins and one draw from 25 matches is good, but it’s no Jersey Bulls. it’s that solitary draw, Jurgen... it’s just not good enough.
With their vital statistics of 23 wins, no draws and no defeats, Jersey boast the only unblemished record in the 52 divisions and of the 1,053 clubs that form the top 10 levels of the English football pyramid.
And another free-scoring afternoon against Chessington & Hook United boosted their staggering goal difference to +80. Liverpool’s is a mere +45 so eat your hearts out Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto firmino.
‘ Credit to the players, we’ve won 6-0, but i don’t think it was our best performance,’ said freeman afterwards, which goes a long way to telling you how dominant Jersey have been in the Combined Counties League Division One this season. With their 21-point advantage over farnham Town in second position, Jersey’s evergrowing fanbase are counting down the games until promotion is mathematically sealed. But everyone involved hopes this is just the beginning of the climb for a club in its inaugural season.
There has been a Jersey football team for well over a century, tapping into a hotbed of talented players in a population of just over 100,000. The Muratti vase has been contested with Channel island neighbours Guernsey and Alderney since 1905, while a Jersey team competes against the likes of Greenland, Menorca and the falklands in the biennial island Games. But after seeing a bid for UEfA membership rejected in 2018, it was decided to follow the example of Guernsey in 2011 and enter the English league system.
Jersey already had a competitive island league and the founders cherry-picked the cream of homegrown talent, signing them all on dual registrations so they can still play for their clubs when not picked for the Bulls. Chairman Russell Le feuvre and CEO ian Horswell helped drive this new dawn. ‘A lot of them had played local league football for several years and were looking for that fresh challenge,’ said Le feuvre. ‘The fA came and saw what Guernsey had done, saw the calibre of our team, the fixtures we were playing, and saw we had a case.’
But coming from somewhere 85 miles south of the English coast has thrown up its fair share of challenges. There was the trip to farnham Town in Surrey shortly before New Year that saw the
Bulls’ flight to Gatwick delayed by two hours before two accidents on the M25 left them snarled up in traffic. Arriving in farnham three minutes before kick- off, the Jersey team changed on their bus, sprinted down the street to the ground, didn’t warm up and somehow won the match 2-0. When the final whistle blew, they legged it back to the bus, muddy boots and all, and headed straight back to the airport.
it’s an expensive business, too, with Jersey footing the travel and accommodation bills for every opponent that comes to Saint Helier this season.
‘The travelling does actually help the team spirit,’ said freeman. ‘it was a new group and it helped them bond.’ That was evident enough on a sunny Saturday afternoon as Jersey netted twice inside the opening five minutes to demoralise a Chessington side who’d taken the morning’s red-eye flight out from Gatwick.
Guernsey, who started in the same division, won two promotions before stalling in the isthmian League Division One.
That’s given Jersey a convenient target. ‘We would love to get above Guernsey, that is our benchmark,’ said Le feuvre. ‘That’s the beauty of it, we’re part of a system — the top of the tree is the Premier League and there’s nobody blocking you. So you can dream and dream and dream.’