Jersey Bulls: New side aim for promotion after first-ever win in English league

The most southerly football team ever to play in the English league system are already targeting promotion - after just one game.

Jersey Bulls made their debut in Division One of the Combined Counties League - the 10th tier of English football - with a 3-0 win over Ash United at St Helier's Springfield Stadium.

Man of the match Fraser Barlow had the honour of scoring the team's first competitive goal, following pre-season matches against League Two side Stevenage and Leicester City's Under-23s.

Barlow's opener late in the first half was added to by a Karl Hinds penalty and a last-minute third from substitute Harry Cardwell.

"Our aim is promotion, without a doubt," said manager Gary Freeman.

"I'm very proud," Barlow told BBC Radio Jersey after making a little bit of local history on an island whose sporting scene has recently been dominated by Jersey's international cricket side and a professional rugby team that plays in the Championship.

"I could have had a few more goals though, but it was good to finally get the finish. We could have been three or four goals up before I scored, but it was good."

The team are following a similar path to their near neighbours and bitter rivals Guernsey, who set up Guernsey FC in 2012.

That side marched through the division the Bulls are in, winning the title, and the one above as they won consecutive promotions.

Jersey Bulls scratches an itch that has long troubled football in the island - getting the best players regular games of a higher standard.

The island failed in a bid to join Uefa as an international nation, but does have a side representing it in Conifa - the federation for non-Fifa nations.

While sides coming to Jersey only have to take the flight from Gatwick to the island once a season, the long slog for the amateur players of Jersey is only just beginning.

They play their first away game, at FC Deportivo Galicia, who are bottom of the fledgling table after a 6-0 opening-day loss to Westside, on Wednesday, 14 August.

It means leaving work early to jump on a lunchtime flight before an evening kick-off and an early plane back the following morning in order to go back to work.

"You see passionate support across grounds in England and Scotland and we want to replicate that here on the island," chairman Russell Le Feuvre said.

"It's all positive at the moment, we've got to make sure we keep that momentum on and off the pitch."