When a 2 goal defeat marks improvement
Epsom and Ewell 0-2 Jersey Bulls. Combined Counties League – Premier Division South – Tuesday 13th August 2024.
Jersey Bulls are not the sort of team you want to face, having just been hit for five goals in our previous outing. However, we acquitted ourselves fairly well on the day and a two goal defeat, the second of which came quite late, was a lot better than I had feared it might be. An attendance counted at just 84 was a disappointing one, considering the opposition.
In terms of personnel, Callum Wilson and Carl Oblitey returned to the starting line up, although Craig Dundas remained absent and Thompson Adeyemi was also missing, while Reece Tierney’s head injury ensured that he would not be available for selection either. Stefan Aiwone made his first start, while Kenny Antony was on the bench, but would join the fray later.
Our keeper Faebian Witter was in action early, diving low to his left to keep out a low free kick from James Sunlay and another shot went just over our crossbar as the visitors tried to assert themselves. They probably should have scored in the 18th minute but Fraser Barlow scuffed his shot wide from in front of goal. We had showed fairly little to this point, struggling to get the ball up to our front two, Oblitey and Will Kendall. However, Luke Miller took a long pass in his stride in the 25th minute and made tracks down the right, only for his ball across goal to be spooned over the bar by Oblitey from eighteen yards.
The visitors were doing more of the work, but we were keeping them mostly at arm’s length. A free kick was sent into the wall by Barlow, before Sunray got down the right wing after some clever interplay, but there was no one on the end of his cross. They had a penalty shout in the 31st minute after Witter collided with a visiting player, but it looked ambitious and nothing was given. However, four minutes later they took the lead after a right wing cross was met at the far post by a header from Miguel Carvalho that Toby Young tried to keep out, but was unable to, with both he and the ball ending up in the net.
We had a decent chance in the 38th minute with a free kick. Adam Green’s delivery was flapped at by the Jersey keeper Evan van der Vliet under pressure from Oblitey and the ball was nodded back to Kendall whose header entered the net, despite an attempt to block it with the hand of a defender. Just as we were wondering whether the defender would be penalised for the handball, it transpired that the Assistant’s flag had already been raised for an offside against Oblitey and the chance was gone. Wilson then blocked a good effort just before the break and the teams went in separated by just the one goal.
The second half followed a similar pattern, although we did register a shot on target just after the hour mark when Fabio Nunes struck at goal from twenty-five yards, providing Van der Vliet with a comfortable save. Carlos Polo-Infante came on for Alex Kodjo but we never had the chance to see whether this would make a difference as in the 69th minute Young was sent off for a challenge on Carvalho that was extremely solid, but just a little high for the referee’s liking.
The extra man enabled the visitors to attack with a little more freedom and in the 78th minute they had a second goal with a move that started on the right and was finished off from a narrow angle by Jonny Le Quesne. Although we had battled well to this point, Jersey did deserve that two goal lead and despite a late cameo from Antony, which included one mazy run, there was more chance that we would concede again and Aiwone did really well to block a shot from Lorne Bickley who had scored both goals against us when we last visited the island in September of last year.
Witter made a good block from a volley at goal from the subsequent half cleared corner and the final whistle blew soon after. Whilst always disappointing to lose, it was maybe no surprise that we would concede twice as this was our fourth meeting and Jersey have scored two goals in each of them. No one could argue that the better side had won, but from an Epsom point of view, this was a marked improvement on our Saturday shocker against Guildford City and although we face another difficult match on Saturday, a hard working shift is the minimum requirement expected by the supporters. I believe we got that in this match.
Epsom & Ewell: Faebian Witter, Toby Young, Callum Wilson, Adam Green ©, Stefan Aiwone, Fabio Nunes, Luke Miller, Axel Kodjo, Will Kendall, Carl Oblitey, Ethan Nelson-Roberts
Subs: Carlos Polo-Infante for Kodjo (67), Kenny Antony for Oblitey (86)
