Jersey Bulls boss grateful for stand-in keeper Jinadu

Daniel Jinadu spent time on the academy books at West Ham before spells at Barnsley, Maidenhead, Dover and Welling

Jersey Bulls manager Elliot Powell says he is grateful to goalkeeper Daniel Jinadu for helping the club in their first-ever game in the Isthmian League.

The 23-year-old former West Ham and Barnsley youngster was called into the starting line-up for the 1-1 draw with Margate with less than an hour's notice.

Jersey registered the goalkeeper, who has played non-league football for Welling United and Dover Athletic, after first-choice goalkeeper Euan van der Vliet was injured on Thursday.

"Euan tried it in the warm-up and wasn't fit, so we'd pulled Daniel in at last minute on Friday," Powell told BBC Radio Jersey.

"We've got our number two keeper at home Pierce (Roche), but Pierce had an important game for St Clement and I think a lot's been said about the relationship between Jersey Bulls and local clubs.

"It's really important for us that we didn't impact a local club through no fault of their own less than 24 hours before an important game for them and respect the local game as well."

Despite meeting his team-mates and coaches for the first time just a few hours before kick-off, Powell said he was impressed by London-based goalkeeper.

"We brought in Daniel as a cover and credit to him, he doesn't know anyone here, he's never met anyone before he came down today," Powell added.

"But he was willing to give up his afternoon move things around for us, driven down, turned up, met a bunch of strangers and then 20 minutes into meeting us he's actually starting.

"I thought he did well, I thought he came and claimed crosses, a little bit of maybe ring rust there a couple of times with the ball dropping and stuff, but I thought he was really good, really composed and brought a sense of calm to a back line that was under siege at times, but stood firm and got us the point in the end.

"We didn't know what we were going to get as a keeper and I'm very happy with how he's performed."