Bulls boss set to give youngsters a chance in new league

Jersey Bulls lost just three games all last season - two in the league and one in the FA Vase

Jersey Bulls manager Elliot Powell says his side's promotion to the Isthmian League will give him the chance to develop the island's best young players.

Bulls beat Cobham 1-0 in the Combined Counties Premier South play-off final to earn promotion to Isthmian League South East.

Moving up to the fourth tier of non-league football is the highest the club has been since it was founded in 2019.

"We've got a great pool of local talent - I think we used 38 players last season and 36 were based on the island at the start of the season," said Powell, who brought in former professionals Kurtis Guthrie and Paul McKay in February after they moved to Jersey.

"We know there's another generation of talented youngsters coming through and they're going to be really important for us in the next couple of years, and also probably in this first season as well where we'll need some fresh energy to kick-start us again after a short turnaround.

"There's a good five, six, maybe seven lads that will be knocking on the door for a place who will probably be playing at the Island Games for the Jersey FA side and get their opportunity to impress and maybe force their way in at the start of the season."

Elliot Powell led Jersey Bulls to promotion in his first season as manager

Powell is realistic about the Bulls' chances of promotion next season.

The club does not pay its players, whereas many of the other sides in their league - which forms part of the eighth tier of the English football pyramid - will have substantial financial resources to put towards their squads.

"There's some big sides with some big budgets," Powell told BBC Radio Jersey.

"Whyteleafe will come up with us and we know they'll strengthen and they'll be looking for back-to-back promotions, and if not even higher than that.

"We know there'll be teams with huge financial power in our league, there's going to be teams that are physically a lot bigger than us.

"But we've shown that we can mix it up in various different ways, whether it's a physical game like Redhill or Fleet Town, we've shown we can compete, and when it's more of a footballing game like Cobham in the final, we came out on the right side of that as well.

"So we're really looking forward to it, it's going to test us in a number of different ways.

"But these are the opportunities that the club has been gearing up for and trying to provide for local players, and it's one we're really relishing and looking forward to taking come August."