We're a little embarrassed with our form over the past month or two, admits Erith Town joint-manager Joe Ford

ERITH TOWN joint-manager Joe Ford has admitted his side must turn around their fortunes after going 11 games without a win.

The Dockers sit in the bottom five in the Southern Counties East Football League table, having collected nine wins, four draws and 13 defeats, which is not good enough, according to Joe Ford, who manages the side with his dad Martin.

“In all honesty myself and Martin are very disappointed and a little embarrassed with our form over the past month or two,” he said.

“From where we were at the start of the season to where we are sitting today in the league is certainly not good enough by anyone’s standards and certainly not ours - we will be the first to admit that.”

Erith Town have suffered with a high number of games being called off at Cray Valley’s Badgers Sports Ground at Middle Park Avenue in Eltham.

Ford points to this towards their slump in form.

He said: “Obviously the amount of games we have had cancelled throughout the season has not helped in the slightest and although I’m certainly not one to make excuses it definitely has affected us in terms of consistency.

“You know how it is, when you are doing well like we were at the time, you want to keep playing but unfortunately the weather and pitch left us with only a few games during the course of 6-7 week period during an important stage then we have been playing catch up with everyone.

“However, it’s no excuse as we have had a clear run for the past month or so and haven’t picked up a win – it needs to change and fast!

“It also hasn’t helped losing a few members of our original squad for example our two top goalscorers Tom Garrick (work commitments) and Tom Youngs (signing for Greenwich Borough), but then how can you stop playing from going to work, playing in a higher standard or earning more money at other clubs?

“The amount of seven day approaches we have had for players this season from teams in a higher standard is crazy, so we must be doing something right!

“Even in my short time as joint-manager with Martin I have learnt there is no loyalty in football anymore and players will move on – you just need to get on with it and bring in other players.

“Unfortunately some of the players we have brought in haven’t been up to it and results have proved that but it’s down to both Martin and myself to move them on and keep trying to build.

“We are lucky to have a great committee and chairman behind us who support us a lot.”

With no chance of being relegated, the Ford’s are now planning for next season.

Ford said: “After keeping the club up last season we always felt that we needed to build up a club again and not just a team, obviously this is not an overnight process but I feel that we are slowing getting there.

“Next season we have a new home at VCD Athletic, which is back in the local area and we are also in the process of adding some youth teams to the club.

“Myself and Martin are not silly, however, and we will (like any other manager’s) be judged on results ultimately which is why it’s important to end the season strongly.

“The aim now is to finish as high as we can in the league – we have a few games in hand on those around us and we need to pick up points.”

The Dockers were defeated by landlords Cray Valley last weekend, courtesy of two second half goals from Brad Potter and Marcus Elliott’s seventh goal for the Millers.

“To lose to Cray Valley on Saturday was very disappointing again, although a rather embarrassing incident that I won’t go into before the game sort of took the shine off the day for myself and Martin personally,” said Ford.

“But we were in the game for long periods and I felt that after the way we started the second half we would go on to win.

“New signing Stuart Zanone was a huge positive and gave us the presence up front we’ve been missing since Tom Garrick’s departure but it wasn’t to be and we switched off twice in the final 15 minutes and got punished.”

Erith Town host AFC Croydon Athletic in a league game tomorrow night.

Ford said: “AFC Croydon Athletic are the next team to visit us and I’ve heard a lot of good things about them and the way they play.

“We will look to freshen things up tomorrow night and give a few lads a chance to how us what they can do as they have been patient and deserve to be given their opportunity.”

Visit Erith Town’s website: www.erithtown.co.uk

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: 22:45 – Monday 21 March 2016