Jersey made their last away trek of the season to Addlestone to meet Abbey Rangers with the match having been postponed on both January 11th and 28th then abandoned five weeks ago on March 11th after Harry Curtis broke his leg.

The hosts were lying 12th with a 12-10-14 45-64 record but had only won two of their last 16 league matches. However, they were leading Jersey 1-0 when the abandoned match had been halted after 43 minutes. Abbey Rangers reached the final of the Southern Combination Cup last week by beating Guildford City 4-2 after extra time and they will meet Epsom & Ewell in the final next week. Jersey had won the reverse fixture 2-0 in late September.

Jersey replaced the injured Euan Van der Vliet with Pierce Roche and rotated three players with Paul McKay, Fraser Barlow and Karl Hinds coming in for Luke Watson, Toby Ritzema and Lorne Bickley who moved to the bench. Joining them there were Kieran Lester and Francis Lekimamati instead of James Carr and Kurtis Guthrie.

Abbey Rangers made two changes to the team of five weeks ago with Del Davies and Brad Marshall coming in for Akhim Brown and Mohamed Diakite, the latter possibly because it was he who had clashed with Curtis.

Abbey, cheered on vociferously by the Redhill squad who turned up in their club tracksuits, again took the lead. Danilo Cadete cut the ball back from the left byline to Brad Marshall whose shot from the edge of box took a wicked deflection past Rocheand found the bottom right corner.

Jersey almost equalised immediately. A cross from Barlow on the left byline found Carvalho near the penalty spot but his shot hit the underside of the bar and bounced out with no Azerbaijani linesman available to rule it a goal!

The equaliser did come ten minutes later as Jersey adopted the long throw tactics that had been used against them recently. Jonny Le Quesne launched one from the right which was headed on by Luke Campbell. The ball rebounded kindly off a defender to Paul McKay ten yards out and he shot into the bottom right corner for his first goal for the club.

The tensions came to the surface just before the interval when Ross Nunn caught James Queree in an incident reminiscent, both in time and place, of the Curtis one five weeks before. Luke Campbell gave the referee his opinion and was sin binned as a consequence before Nunn was cautioned and wisely replaced at the interval.

Jersey had an excellent chance to take the lead within twenty five seconds of the restart. Jay Giles pumped a long ball forward which Karl Hinds did well to bring under control, twist inside and set up the fast arriving Adam Trotter. A first time shot was needed but probably wary of the bumpy pitch a second touch let Brad Marshall get in a saving tackle and Tremayne Wooliscroft took the loose rebound off Miguel Carvalho’s toe.

Mid way through the half as Jersey were preparing a triple substitution Roche launched a free kick from his own half to the edge of the Abbey box. Hinds again did well and hooked it into the path of Kilshaw who was felled by a lunging tackle from David Orisatoki as he was about to shoot.

Hinds picked up the ball and would not be parted from it and ignoring the antics of the Redhill players and supporters behind the goal, sent Shay Honey the wrong way as he placed the penalty in the top right corner. He then set off on a celebratory run that parodied Redhill’s poor behaviour on Saturday. It should not be condoned but was entirely understandable. He duly picked up his first caution of the season.

With just under ten minutes left a Roche goal kick was headed on by Paul McKay and fell to Bickley who flicked it past advancing Honey but it rolled slowly wide of the right post. In the third added minute near disaster struck Jersey as substitute Stuart Mortimer shrugged off Queree and burst forward. However, Roche was quickly out to tackle him just outside the box to avert the danger as Jersey held out for the lengthy added time that has been a feature of their recent matches.

After the match the U.K. Supporters Group whose members attend all the mainland matches, and many at Springfield, made their Away Player of the Season award. This year it went to Luke Watson who just pipped Fraser Barlow in their voting. Watson’s acceptance speech recognised how much their regular support meant to the players who had gone through the season without losing an away league match, winning fifteen and drawing the other four.

It all comes down to the final match against relegation threatened Sandhurst Town.

Abbey Rangers – Shay Honey, Del Davies, David Orisatoki, Ross Nunn, Tremayne Wooliscroft, Tanaka Gabaza (vc), Danilo Cadete, Brad Marshall, Luke Robertson (c), Milo Derham, Jordan Ikala

Substitutes - 14. Kelvin Karanja (for Derham 80), 15. Akhim Brown (for Orisatoki 78), 16. Finley Warren (for Nunn 46), 17. Jordan Sarfu (for Cadete 62), 18. Stuart Mortimer (for Robertson 64)

Black & White Stripes with White backs/Black/Black; GK All Light Green

Adam Bessent (Manager), his younger brother Jake Bessent (Assistant), Joe Hutchins (Coach), Bradley Hanks (Analyst)

Jersey Bulls – Pierce Roche (wore 21), Jonny Le Quesne (wore 12), Jay Giles, James Queree (c), Luke Campbell, Paul McKay (wore 15), Fraser Barlow (wore 14), Joe Kilshaw, Karl Hinds (wore 20), Adam Trotter, Miguel Carvalho
Substitutes – 6. Luke Watson (for Hinds 73), 9. Lorne Bickley (for Giles 69), 17. Kieran Lester (for Ritzema 90+2), 19, Francis Lekimamati (for Carvalho 69), 22. Toby Ritzema (for Kilshaw 69)

Red/White/Red: GK All Yellow

Elliot Powell (Manager), Adam Lester (Assistant & Medical), Glen Johnson (GK Coach)

Formations (R to L)
Abbey Rangers (4-4-2) 1; 2-5-6-3; 11-4-8-7; 9-10
Jersey Bulls (4-1-4-1) 1; 2-4-5-3; 10; 11-8-15-14; 20

Match Officials – Samuel Palmer (Reading), Simon Smith (Sunbury) on the dug outs side and Phil Paice (Woking) on the far side

Cautions – Miguel Carvalho (JB) 35, Luke Campbell (JB) 45 sin bin, Ross Nunn (AR) 45, Jonny Le Quesne (JB) 45+2, Jay Giles (JB) 63, David Orisatoki (AR) 66, Karl Hinds (JB) 68, Francis Lekimamati (JB) 90+6

Corners – Abbey Rangers (0) 0; Jersey Bulls (1) 4

Assists – Luke Campbell, Joe Kilshaw

Player of the Match – Adam Trotter

Added Time – 2.05 & 8.35 (10.40)