Club Statement

We are immensely grateful for everything Gary and his team; Kevan Nelson, Richard Hebert and Dan Seviour have contributed to the establishment and continued growth of the football club. Without their efforts we would not be the club we are today.

Gary took on the new and challenging Manager role in the summer of 2019 and has gone on to become a record-breaking manager. Winning every game of 2019-2020 season before Covid stopped the season.

The same happened in the 2020/21 season; winning every game we played but sadly we were stopped in our tracks again with a season curtailment. There was subsequently a league restructure by the English FA which saw Gary and his team rewarded for their perfect record over two seasons, with promotion to the Combined Counties Premier League South.

During the 2021/22 season, Gary led Jersey to the furthest any offshore Island has ever gone in the FA Cup, reaching the 3rd Round qualifying before losing narrowly to Chertsey 1-0 in front of over 1,600 fans at Springfield Stadium.

Our FA Cup exploits which included Jersey being shown live on BBC when we played at, the then EFL ground, Gander Green Lane. This incredible cup run meant we were always playing catch-up in the league. Gary’s team went from 13th after a 22-match unbeaten run to move into 3rd! Which is where we ended up finishing for the season with a club record 81 points, a tremendous achievement in our first season at Step 5.

The second season in Step 5 started off with an excellent pre-season run beating Kettering Town (Step 2) and Hashtag United (Step 4 at the time) followed by a 16-match unbeaten run from the start of the season, clearly showing the skill and ambition in the squad. In addition to this, later that season saw the Jersey club side have a fantastic FA Vase run which included three amazing home wins against Bearsted, Athletic Newham and Romford. Sadly, we eventually lost 1-0 away to the holders - Newport Pagnell Town, in the 5th Round. We finished the season in a club record high position of 3rd.

The 2023/24 season saw the introduction of the promotional play offs. An exciting addition to our league. Gary’s pre-season created more history, playing our first ever match against Scottish opposition, as we welcomed Stenhousemuir to Springfield.

We returned to the FA Cup after a year out and knocked out Sittingbourne (who finished 3rd in step 4) after a replay. A challenging August saw Gary’s team go on a 4-month unbeaten run to move into 3rd in the league.

The club never dropped out of the play off positions from this point on and eventually finished in 2nd place, a new club record amassing 79 points (the same as 2022/23) season.

In this season, we have equalled our FA Vase run of a 5th Round proper finish. Losing in front of over 1,400 fans on yet another incredible occasion for the Island of Jersey.

Unfortunately, our promotional journey ended on Saturday 4th May with another home crowd of over 1,000 islanders present. Narrowly losing to a talented AFC Croydon Athletic side 2-1.

In his letter to the Board, Gary said

Jersey Bulls Chairman, Russell Le Feuvre said

Gary Freeman has not just been a fantastic manager, more importantly he is a remarkable person. His down to earth and unassuming personality is reflected by the affection and warmth for him from everyone within the club and throughout our Island community. This alone speaks volumes of his character.

Gary has been supported since inception by his trusted assistant Kevan Nelson. Kevan, just like Gary has given a tremendous amount of time, energy, and passion to the club. We would like to put on record our extreme gratitude to Kev for his dedication over the 5 years.

There are further thank you to coach Dan Seviour and goalkeeping coach Richard Hebert who both came in during season 3. They have been fantastic additions to Gary’s boot room, and we also thank them wholeheartedly for the time and effort.

Gary, Kev, Dan, and Rich along with all the people that play a role in the club are etched into the fabric of the club and we hope they will consent to play a part in its future. Their faces on the touch line have been at times a comforting source of familiarity. Football clubs represent their communities and hopefully the Island are as proud as we are, of how these four volunteers have represented Jersey.

We are extremely grateful for everything Gary and the management team have done. On behalf of the Board, committee, players, volunteers and indeed our supporters, “Mèrcie bein des fais Gary!”