I don't want the season to fizzle out now, says AFC Croydon Athletic boss Antony Williams

AFC CROYDON ATHLETIC manager Antony Williams says he is going to blood some of the club’s talented youngsters over the Easter period.

The Rams boss has guided the club to the top nine in their debut Southern Counties East Football League campaign going into the Easter programme.

The Thornton Heath outfit have won 12 games, drawn five and lost 13 and went down to a 2-0 defeat at Deal Town at the weekend.

“Really disappointed with the result on Saturday,” said Williams.

“It was a poor game, we should have taken our chances first half but went in at 0-0.

“Poor game and disappointed not to take something from it.  Fair play to Deal they battled very hard and stuck to their game plan.”

Williams takes his side to Eltham to play Erith Town on Tuesday night.

The Dockers sit in the bottom five in the table, having collected nine wins, four draws and thirteen defeats.

Williams said: “We haven’t played them yet and don’t know much about them. We are looking to get a reaction from the lads.  They were disappointed Saturday and want to get back to winning ways.

“We will enjoy the surface at Cray and will go and be positive as always.”

AFC Croydon Athletic host Rochester United on Easter Saturday, before travelling to fifth-placed Corinthian on Easter Monday (both kicking off at 15:00).

Looking ahead to their penultimate home game of the season against Matt Hume’s Rochester United, Williams said: “We’re hoping to give our supporters a better performance after our last home showing against Greenwich. We were very poor and they are a good side and punished us with their quality.

“Corinthian are up there and it’s a new ground for most of us, another good surface by all accounts so my lads will enjoy that.”

When asked about his aims for their last six league games of the season, Williams said: “I will be looking to blood quite a few of our very good youth side over the remainder of the season.  We want to see who can make that step up.  There’s definitely some very talented lads so that will be positive.

“We’ve got six games to go and we want to win as many as possible and finish strong.  I don’t want the season to fizzle out now.

“The lads have worked exceptionally hard and should be relatively happy with how we have done in our first season.  We definitely have built a budget playing squad and it would be nice to get one next year and see what we could do.  The club is building and things take time, which I understand.”

Visit AFC Croydon’s Athletic website:
www.pitchero.com/clubs/afccroydonathletic

Erith Town  v  AFC Croydon Athletic
Southern Counties East Football League
Tuesday 22^nd March 2016
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Badgers Sports Ground, Middle Park Avenue, Eltham, London SE9 5HT

Article published: 20:30 – Monday 21 March 2016