'Tony Talks'

Good afternoon, I would like to welcome you all to Park View Road for this SCEFL fixture against Canterbury City. I would like to give an especially warm welcome to Keith Bird, Canterbury’s Manager whom I know well after our time together at Holmesdale. Keith was a great Chairman whilst I was helping in the background away from having any direct football involvement. Keith is without doubt one of the genuinely nice guys in football and he has a rather lovely, better half in Kerry, I look forward very much to seeing them both today.

Our last home fixture against Rusthall proved to be every bit as difficult as we knew it would be. They were a very young, energetic side who tried to play, moving the ball well around the pitch and causing us more than a few problems. Defences were on top in the first half and chances were at a premium, it was important to stay patient and keep trying to play to our strengths. We made a few tactical changes at half time and as a result I thought we dominated the second half. Tyrell got us on our way, after an exchange of passes he turned his man, strode into the box, and unleashed a rocket which flew past the goalkeeper who literally didn’t move. That man Purcell popped up to add a second with another unstoppable shot after a great assist from Tunde, chesting it into his path. Brad Ryan was unlucky to see his penalty saved but ultimately it didn’t prove to be anything other than a bit frustrating. The game finished 2-0 and another really important win and 3 points added to our total. With everyone around us winning, it really was an important win.

We are under no illusions; Canterbury will be an extremely tough nut to crack and whatever we get out of this game (if anything) will have been hard earnt. They have quality within their side that can undo you as we well know. Henry Arnold and Luke Carey, who were both with us at the start of the season, are part of their squad and are real quality players. Henry scored a few goals for us before his departure and was on the scoresheet last week in their win against Fisher. I wanted to give them both a special mention as they are both great lads and we’re looking forward to seeing them again today as well. They will be buoyed by their win last week, 3-1 is comfortable so they will be full of confidence coming into today’s game. One thing we know for certain is that we will treat this game the same as every other game, with total respect for the opposition.

I hope that you enjoy the game today and we look forward to your loyal and continued support for the remainder of the season.

Good luck to us!

Becks