Walton & Hersham 0, Jersey Bulls 3; Saturday 8th February 2020

After 20 minutes circling Gatwick it was a straight forward trip to the Walton & Hersham ground. A new £20 million council complex partly funded by selling off their old ground for development and moving in with Step 3 Walton Casuals. The latter’s old ground has been replaced by an Olympic standard athletics facility behind the new main football stand. With other 3G pitches also included in the complex it is a very impressive one which is now in its third footballing season.

Also impressive was the programme they had produced for the match. Normally only available online it was a glossy twenty page informative production that included details of the match they had hosted against Jersey in 1989 as part of the Island’s Muratti warm up schedule.

Manager Gary Freeman made two changes from the Chessington line up with Luke Campbell and Kamen Nafkha coming in for Jack Griffin and Zeljko Martinovic, who dropped down to the bench. With Walton being all in red Jersey turned out in their blue/white/white attire.

The Bulls added to their collection of late starts when one of the assistant referees failed to arrive. On being contacted it transpired that he had not spotted that it was a 1p.m. start. So another nearer one was contacted and he hoped to be at ground to enable a 1.20 kick off. However he was being optimistic and so the game started at 1.25 with Bulls assistant manager, Kevan Nelson, running a line for his 11 minutes of “fame” until the substitute assistant could replace him.

During that period, but at the other end, Fraser Barlow had scored the 100th Bulls goal (friendlies and cups included) when a good cross in from the left by Jonny Le Quesne caught the opposition defence lying square. A wonderful first touch gave him the time to side step the advancing Bert White and open the scoring in only the third minute.

Walton fought back and, as was seen when they visited Springfield, they were combatative team that needed subduing. Fortunately their free scoring attack, although spearheaded by one of Karl Hinds rivals at the top of the divisional scoring charts, was not as effective as their rearguard. However they did have a half chance on 24 minutes when Euan Van der Vliet did well to spread himself at the foot of the near post to keep out a Leon Lalor-Dell shot as Walton looked increasingly threatening.

The Bulls fought back and after some twenty minutes of Walton pressure a deft touch from Sol Solomon brought out a good save from White and Jay Giles also retaliated with a 25 yard shot that rattled their cross bar.

Half time was reached with the lead intact but during the interval substitute Harry Cardwell managed to injure himself whilst kicking about with Griffin and Martinovic and so put himself out of consideration for a cameo role in the second half.

On the resumption the Bulls put the game to bed with two goals in three minutes. Le Quesne was again the provider, but this time from the right, as he jinked past a couple of defenders to put the ball on a plate for Solomon after 54 minutes.

Shortly afterwards Barlow was “tap tackled” by Jordan Simmons as he also drove in from the right and Hinds duly dispatched his eighth spot kick of the season with Simmons sin binned for his observations on the decision. The only one so punished during the afternoon but a frequent occurrence which led to increasing tetchiness.

Jules Gabbiadini received a “yellow” which from the side lines looked like a case of mistaken identity before Walton thought they had pulled a goal back on 65 minutes. Simeon Dennis drove in a good cross shot from the right which Van der Vliet got a hand to but could not keep out but their leading scorer Tyreke Leslie could not resist making sure only to find his celebrations prematurely ended by the assistants flag when had he left it alone the “goal” would probably have stood.

With 20 minutes to go Kamen Nafkha was involved in some off the ball “handbags” with newly introduced Walton substitute Sebastien Osei-Obengo which saw them both carded. Martinovic then made an excellent break down the left but his shot from the right just lacked sufficient curl to get inside the far post and it cannoned back in to play.

Shortly afterwards Nafkha unwisely kicked the ball away when Walton were awarded a free kick and amid their usual howls of protest he gained a second card and had to take the long walk back to the changing rooms with some unpleasant language coming from the stand to “greet” him as he left.

The extra man did not become clearly evident and the Bulls comfortably saw out the remainder of the match to record their 24th consecutive league win and 27th in all.

Jersey Bulls

Euan Van der Vliet, Jules Gabbiadini, Jay Giles, James Queree(c), Luke Campbell, Kamen Nafkha, Fraser Barlow, Jonny Le Quesne, Adam Trotter, Karl Hinds, Sol Solomon

Substitutes

Zjelko Martinovic for Le Quesne 66, Jack Griffin for Solomon 72

Not Used

Harry Cardwell (inj), Kevan Nelson, Jason Carpenter (GK)

Walton & Hersham

Bert White, Ola Williams, Miguel Lopes De Matos, Justin Hemmings(c), Jordan Simmons, Samuel Marfo, Simeon Dennis, Emmanuel Yeboah, Tyreke Leslie, Anderson Pinto-Nogueira, Leon Lalor-Dell

Substitutes

Sebastien Osei-Obengo for Lalor-Dell 66, Munashe Mwatsiya for Marfo 76, Thomas Lim for Yeboah 84

Not Used

Michael Winnister, Alvin Sarmiento

Officials

Dave Sheldrake (West Molesey, Sy), Phil Paice (Woking, Sy), Roger Wells (Coulsdon, Sy)

Cautions/Sin Bins

Le Quesne (JB) 31, Lalor-Dell (W&H) 42, Simmons (W&H) sin bin 56, Gabbiadini (JB) 59, Osei-Obengo (W&H) and Nafkha (JB) 71, Nafkha (JB) again 74 (and off), Mwatsiya (W&H) 86

Corners

Walton & Hersham 2 (24 & 62), Jersey Bulls 3 (20, 44 & 51)

Goals

Walton & Hersham 0, Jersey Bulls 3 (Barlow 3, Solomon 54, Hinds pen 57)

Attendance

165 (their second highest of the season)