Sometimes you get knocked down, you get knocked over, you get yourself back on your feet and dust yourselves down and sometimes it can galvanise us and make us more determined, which I’m hoping it will do to us, says Beckenham Town assistant Billy Walton

BECKENHAM TOWN assistant manager Billy Walton urges his side to pick themselves up from their heart breaking FA Vase exit on Wednesday night.

 

As expected, their First Round tie was settled by a penalty shoot-out which Chatham Town won 7-6 at Eden Park Avenue.

The game last Saturday finished 1-1 in Medway after 120 minutes and Wednesday’s game finished all square after extra time at 2-2, before Jordan Carey saved Mathieu Ramsamy’s spot-kick after 14 penalties at the end of an epic tussle between the top two teams in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division.

Beckenham Town are five points clear of Scott Lindsey’s men but do have two games in hand and Walton wants his men to pick themselves up after suffering such penalty shoot-out despair.

“Sometimes you get knocked down, you get knocked over, you get yourself back on your feet and dust yourselves down and sometimes it can galvanise us and make us more determined, which I’m hoping it will do to us,” said Walton.

“The pain of losing, use that pain of losing, like the way we lost, use that pain to dive you on!”

Walton was, however, complementary of the football that Lindsey has brought to the Chatham Town side in only his third game in charge since taking over from James Collins.

Lindsey, whose last job was assistant manager at League Two side Forest Green Rovers, had a conversation with Walton to praise the high quality of football.

Walton said: “I just said to Scott jokingly, ‘you won’t be able to play like that on some of the pitches we play on,’ and he said to me ‘we’ll try to play like that.’

“If that’s the way they will play, fair play to him, if they can do it I’ll clap him and say ‘well done’.

“That’s the only way I want to play, it’s the only way I’ve been taught to play, pass it and move.

“All the teams in our country now are doing it, I think we’re getting better as a nation at football and let’s finally get rid of Sam Allardyce’s way of playing and some of the people in this league that just want to hump it forward, long may it continue.”

Beckenham’s character is at the test when they travel down to Lydd Town in the Kent Senior Trophy First Round on Saturday.

Liam Smith’s side are in tenth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table, having picked up 11 points from 10 games.

“We’ve got some very good players here, the players we had out on Wednesday night, for whatever reason didn’t make it, they’ll be playing on Saturday,” revealed Walton.

“We’ll go down there and give a professional job and hopefully get through a really tricky tie.

“Lydd have got nothing to lose, they’re playing a team that’s top of the league above them. It’s a free hit so we’ve just got to go there and play like we did against Chatham and if we play like we did against Chatham then we’ll be fine.

“Liam will make it extremely hard for us and they will give us a game and let’s look forward to going down there and do battle with them.

“It will be a battle. If it’s windy down there, I won’t be able to wear my wig! I’ll have to take my wig off and go bald because my wig will get blown off down there!”

Visit Beckenham Town’s website: www.beckenhamtownfc.com

Lydd Town  v  Beckenham Town
Kent Senior Trophy First Round
Saturday 19 October 2019
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Lindsey Field, Dengemarsh Road, Lydd, Kent TN29 9JH