Come Christmas time I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder at relegation, says Chatham Town boss Tony Beckingham

CHATHAM TOWN manager Tony Beckingham says he cannot compete against the bigger clubs in their division.

The Medway side have suffered defeats in both of their two home games and travel to relegated Lewes on Saturday, before hosting Cray Wanderers on Monday. Both games kicking off at 15:00.

Both of those sides are expected to be challenging for promotion to get out of the Ryman League Division One South come the end of the season.

“Two teams that are favoured to win the league or get in the play-offs at least so two tough games,” said Beckingham, who was speaking after losing 2-1 at home to Walton Casuals in The FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay on Monday night.

“But when you look at the Ryman South this year, I’m struggling to find an easy game, there’s just isn’t one!

“The Ryman League have made it even tougher by putting Greenwich and Cray Wanderers in the league as well. I don’t know anything about Godalming but those two sides alone will be looking to win the league so you’re looking at six to eight teams.

“Lewes, I’m friends with Ross Standen the assistant manager there and Darren Freeman and they’ve put together a good side.

“Lewes, Hastings, Hythe, Faversham, Greenwich Borough, Cray Wanderers, I could go on and on and on are teams that generally think they can win the league so we can’t compete with the sort of budgets these teams have got – but we’re going to try.”

Chatham Town have suffered two poor seasons over the past couple of seasons and Beckingham seeks improvement in his first season in charge.

“Realistically, aspirations are to try to improve from last year,” said Lordswood resident Beckingham.

“Come Christmas time I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder at relegation. It’s to try to get some points on board and be comfortable ish and I’ll be happy with that.

“It’s all about improvements. The club have had a few lean years. Unless you have a massive injection of money like certain clubs, I’m sorry, you just can’t wave a magic wand. It takes time, it takes time and effort and it takes getting the right players in to build that team spirit and all those other things that you need. That’s the only way you can compete against teams with massive budgets.

“There’s no doubt about it. These teams in this league with massive budgets it has made it very, very tough. It’s not a moan, it’s a fact.

“It’s a difficult league to be in this year. It’s an actual fact there’s no way of getting away from it. It’s what you’ve got to compete against.”

Visit Chatham Town’s website:  www.chathamtownfc.info

Lewes  v  Chatham Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 27^th August 2016
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Dripping Pan, Mountfield Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2XA