Jersey Bulls seal play-off place with Deal Town win

Jersey Bulls confirmed their place in the Isthmian League South East play-offs with a 1-0 win at Deal Town.

The win mean Bulls - in their first season in the eighth tier of English football - guarantee themselves at least fourth place in the division as they extended their unbeaten run in 2026 to 17 games.

The islanders were grateful to the impressive Jamie Watling as he cleared Ben Chapman's seventh-minute effort off the line before Bulls got the decisive goal three minutes later.

Lorne Bickley rounded goalkeeper James Tonkin and slotted home a Jay Giles pass after some good build-up play for his 23rd goal of the season.

Bulls' Rai Dos Santos had a chance cleared off the line soon after while Deal's Ash Miller missed an excellent 20th-minute chance in an end-to-end first half as the in-form Dos Santos forced a good save from Tonkin 10 minutes later.

Miller was thwarted early in the second half as Deal looked for an equaliser thanks to a good save from Euan van der Vliet.

Tonkin kept Deal in it late on when he saved from Adam Trotter after the Jersey midfielder broke into the box with 10 minutes to go and from substitute James Sunley in stoppage time.

"I think it was pretty much done last week, but to have officially done it now, it's really positive," Bulls manager Elliot Powell said of securing a play-off place.

"I thought we were good value for it as well, I thought we could have won by a better margin.

"Yes, they had a couple of chances first half, but you'd expect them to, They're a good side and they're at home but I thought we had a little bit more quality in the key moments and it was a really good goal that we scored.

"Now we can sit back, watch what Whyteleafe do, and then hopefully come five o'clock we're planning for a game at Springfield against Hastings followed by another game at Springfield on the Tuesday night in the playoffs.

"I'm delighted with it and what a performance from the lads, what a season so far."