Cotton nips progress in the bud - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Alan Cotton, the manager of Southern Amateur League minnows West Wickham, has warned that his side are capable of reaching the Kent Senior Trophy final this season, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Corkscrew Hill outfit have already embarrassed Kent League sides Herne Bay and Hythe Town to reach the semi-finals and want to add unbeaten Kent League leaders Whitstable Town to their scalps.
 
The winners of the Belmont clash on 3^rd March will meet Bearsted (Kent County League) or Kent League side Sevenoaks Town in the final.
 
“We won both the games against Herne Bay and Hythe Town very comfortably and we were unlucky not to win both games by a bigger margin,” Cotton said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.
 
“The games were quite different.  Against Herne Bay they scored a great early goal and we could have capitulated easily if we had been an average side.
 
“But we fought back and it soon became apparent that we were quicker and more determined than Herne Bay and, perhaps, they thought that the game was already won or could be won whenever they wanted to win it.
 
“Once we equalised, the visitors never threatened us and perhaps they underestimated us.
 
“We have played them at their ground in the reserve cup several times in the last few years and have beaten them so they should have known that we would give them a stern test.
 
“The Hythe Town game, however, was completely different as they never got a look in and again we were quicker and stronger than them and played to a plan.
 
“They tried hard and could not find a way through our defence – despite being below strength we dominated the game and could have scored more.”
 
Whitstable boss Marc Seager has already said that he will treat West Wickham with the same respect as they did Ryman Premier League pacesetters Margate when the two sides met in the FA Cup second qualifying round earlier in the season.
 
The Oysterboys have only lost against Robin Trott’s side – and Sussex County League side Oakwood in the FA Vase this season.
 
“I think that the visitors probably underestimated the strength of the Southern Amateur League,” said Cotton, whose side are currently in fifth (of an eleven team) division.
 
“There are nine or ten really good sides in the first and second division of the senior division.”
 
Cotton admitted his club are looking forward to visiting The Belmont again.
 
He said: “We are looking forward to the game against Whitstable on 3^rd March.
 
“The last time we reached the semi-final of this competition we lost 1-0 in the early 90’s and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Belmont Stadium.
 
“We know that Whitstable are an excellent team and it looks as though they could win the league so it will be a difficult but enjoyable day out for us.”
 
But Cotton has ruled out a visit to Whitstable Town in league action in the future as the club are happy to stay where they are.
 
“When you play for a team in the pyramid into the higher leagues and you are being paid to play there, there is a strong tendency to think that you are, therefore, playing a better standard of football than clubs that are not in the pyramid,” he said.
 
“I have had this discussion with many young players in various leagues such as the Kent League, Kent County League, Combined Counties League etc – they choose to play in the pyramid leagues, which is understandable but I feel that most of the Southern Amateur League sides would win most of these feeder leagues if they choose to go this route.
 
“This attitude of mind is fostered by the pyramid and there is nothing wrong with this as it caters for those with ambitions to make football a paying proposition.
 
“However, it often means that clubs from other leagues are thought to be inferior because if they were any good they would be in the pyramid.
 
“This is a fallacy and clubs like West Wickham have demonstrated this for many years – beating Kent League clubs is not a new phenomena – we have been doing it for many years.
 
“Maybe Herne Bay and Hythe Town under estimated us because of our status but I know that Whitstable won’t.”
 
West Wickham, however, have carried their ethos since their formation in 1901.
 
“The standard of football in the Southern Amateur League is very good and the game is played in the right spirit,” said Cotton.
 
“We want to win but we don’t want to spend our Saturday afternoon fighting and abusing the officials so we have a strict code of conduct which every club adheres to.
 
“There are 33 clubs in the Southern Amateur League and between them they run 210 separate sides, over 2,500 players every week and our governing body is the Amateur Football Alliance.
 
“The Southern Amateur League caters for footballers of a variety of standards and some clubs operate ten sides and the minimum is six sides per club.”
 
With the Kent League crying out for more clubs, West Wickham are on course to improve their facilities, but they don’t want to make the step up.
 
Their reserve and youth sides, however, often meet clubs that play at Kent League level or above.
 
Cotton said: “Our ground at Corkscrew Hill, West Wickham is very good and we rarely lose a game through bad weather as the pitch drains exceptionally well.
 
“Last week we switched the reserve game against Ashford Town to our ground as unfortunately their ground has been unplayable in recent weeks.

”We won 1-0 and are in the semi-finals of the Kent Intermediate Cup against Dartford.
 
“We are preparing a programme to win Standard Charter status, which will qualify us to request a grant from the Football Foundation to improve our dressing rooms and pitches and introduce Women’s football and floodlit practise pitches.  We hope to have this scheme in place this year.
 
“We have in the past considered the possibility of moving into a feeder league but each time we have rejected it as we have a long history of playing good class football in the Southern Amateur League and the club and league cater for a wide variety of playing standards.
 
“We do not have the ground facilities to qualify for higher leagues as we don’t have lights or perimeter boundaries on all four sides but we do have three excellent pitches.
 
“The majority of our members could not get the time to play midweek football and are content to play solely on a Saturday as a recreation and not as a revenue stream.
 
“Every player has to pay to join each year and has to pay £10 per game to help run the club so the Southern Amateur League philosophy is completely amateur and there is a strong family spirit within the club and it is not unusual to have three generations of families turning out for West Wickham on the weekend.
 
“Most of our players come via the junior section as we have many ex-players, and current players, coaching junior sides.
 
“Another area is local schools and universities.  We lose a lot of juniors when they reach seventeen as they often need to work on a Saturday for pocket money and then they go off to university.
 
“But we get quite a few back and they bring players that they have met at college, which is a big bonus as most of these guys have been playing good standard of football on top quality pitches.

“The club run six sides in the Southern Amateur League on Saturday’s and ten sides on a Sunday via our junior section.

“Football for the kids starts at the four to six age group and goes up to under 18’s.

”The natural progression is into the senior section to play in the Southern Amateur League.

“We run ten sides in this section and the under 18’s play in the Kent Youth League, whilst the under 16’s and under 17’s play in the top division of the Tandridge League.”
 
Before their trip to Whitstable, West Wickham have another two quarter-final ties to look forward.
 
On 27^th January they travel to Sinjun Grammarians in the Kent/Surrey Senior Cup and on the 10^th February, they welcome the Civil Service to Corkscrew Hill in the AFA Senior Cup, which is the most prestigious amateur cup competition.
 
Cotton added: “It’s sure is a full programme and I hope to be back to full strength in the next three or four weeks.”
 
Meanwhile, West Wickham officials are looking for a company to sponsor their coach travel to Whitstable.
 
A statement issued by the club said: “There is bound to be press coverage of this game and we will make sure that your company name is displayed prominently in the next two months.  All offers gratefully accepted. The cost is about £750 for a 49 seater coach.”
 
 
History of West Wickham Football Club:
 
The club was founded in 1901 and registered with the Amateur Football Alliance (A.F.A.) in 1931-32.

In 1955/56 saw the first successes in the league with the 3rd XI winning their division (scoring 105 goals in 18 games) and the 2nd XI also being promoted on goal average.
 
In 1956/57 saw the 4th XI enter the league and the 5th XI followed in 1958/59.

In 1963/64 saw the 1st XI promoted to Division One for the first time ever and maintained that status until 1998/99.

Only one other club in the whole world has more teams that are currently running and that is Real Madrid.

The 1977/78 1st XI was under the guidance of Ross Allen and Ian Freeman was running the 2nd XI who won the 2nd XI championship in 1978/79 being unbeaten (W 16, D 6, L 0 ) and walked the league by seven points. 

In 1979/80 saw the 1st & 2nd XI's both win their championships and the 3rd XI win the second division. 

In 1987/88 saw the first team win the league by 11 points and the next season another league win saw them concede only 9 goals in 22 games.

A record 5th consecutive league championship saw us eclipse the record of the New Crusaders who won the league for 4 consecutive seasons after it's formation in 1907.

AFA CUP

The first time the A.F.A Senior Cup was won was in the 1971/72 season.  The match was played at Dulwich Hamlet’s Champion Hill ground.  West Wickham ran out 2-0 victors over EBOGS.

With a relatively poor team they reached the final in 1975/76 but went down 2-1 to Old Aloysians.

The next final was victorious in the 1980/81 where an excellent game saw the club beat South Bank Polytechnic 4-2.

Alas, two further final appearances saw them  finish runners up twice, firstly in 1987, losing 3-2 a.e.t to Old Aloysians.  The other loss was in 1990 where they lost 2-1 to our S.A.L rivals Old Salesians.

During this time West Wickham have had the opportunity to complete the "double" of S.A.L and A.F.A but, so far, that achievement has eluded them. In 1991/92 West Wickham beat Midland Bank 2-1.

2000 FORWARD

The First Team slipped into the Second Division early in the new century due to the over reliance on older players who were responsible for the glory years.

Neil Linter took over the reins with a new young side and a more experimental approach and his side won promotion in 2002/3.

West Wickham quickly re-established themselves again in the top flight  and Neil decide to give playing a final go -- but didn't get far due to niggling injuries. He then devoted his attentions to coaching the very young juniors and handed the management to Alan Cotton in 2005/6.

This season almost resulted in a championship win but they were denied by one point with the excellent Old Owens side taking the trophy.

The current team has youth on it's side and is gaining in experience and the future looks bright.

Recently West Wickham have been well represented in the AFA and SAL league teams  by Paul Clapham, Neil Currie, Adam Freeman and Dave Adams and I am sure that more honours will follow shortly.

WEST WICKHAM FOOTBALL CLUB CONTACT DETAILS

Corkscrew Hill, West Wickham, Kent
Telephone: 0208 777 3442
Official Website: www.westwickhamfc.co.uk
Email:  wwfc@westwickhamfc.co.uk

League website: www.southernamateurleague.co.uk

Please mention that you read this article on www.kentishfootball.co.uk when contacting the club.