Jets In Fine Form – Draw at Ballers
Rising Ballers Kensington 1 Oxhey Jets 1
Combined Counties Division One
2nd May 2024
Jets put on an incredible show against play-off chasing Rising Ballers Kensington, who needed a point to replace Molesey in the play-offs.
Jets squad with too many games too close called London marathon finisher Spencer Bellotti out of retirement and had to make many changes from Tuesday’s miserable performance, and nobody expected the battle that followed.
Jets kicked off and immediately showed their intent with Archie James and Skipper Owen Ayres combining and Nugs having a superb game going full at the Baller’s defence, while Lewis Lavin was back to his dominant best in Jets goal.
It was end to end, but the hosts grabbed the lead with an excellent unstoppable low drive. (17 mins )
Jets kept battling, and the Ballers kept coming at speed. It was a cracking match and somehow still 1-0 at the break.
An early double blow in the second half for Jets as an elbow incensed Spencer Bellotti, and he was shown a straight Red by the frankly completely out-of-his-depth match official.
Danny Fowler’s game was cut short by a double blow to his head, leaving him unconscious on the pitch. The young full-back came around then went out again and was to spend a long night in Watford General with limited sight, speech and mobility. ( update: Danny was released from hospital and is now resting without sport for a few weeks.)
Jets, despite the double blow with now ten men, seemingly just said to hell with it, go for it and literally had Ballers reeling, and on 73 minutes an incredible strike from close to the corner flag from Remell Stirling shook the home defence and brought buoyant celebrations from Jets.
Ballers went defensive and were pushed into retreat by Jets in the closing minutes. What they must have thought would be a pushover was anything but and they were struggling to hold on. It was a battering wave after wave of Jets attacks.
Ballers, however, held out and moved on to the playoffs. No winner, but a very good point and performance by Jets.
The Carlsberg MoM was hard, TJ and Nugs excellent and, to a man, incredible effort and high skill from Jets but the nod, given by Dave Barnes, went to James Kimber, who was dominant in defence
Tough week. Won one, lost one and now one to go.
As mentioned above, Thursday night’s performance was a mighty improvement on a poor display on tuesday night in a 2-4 home defeat to London Samurai Rovers. The bright spot in that game though was the Jets Man of the Match performance from Olly Pope, coming back from injury and building up his minutes in recent weeks, and now back to full fitness and form.
