Kentish Football 
Hollands & Blair face obstacles to get Star Meadow up to scratch to host Kent League football
Wednesday 22nd December 2010
HOLLANDS & BLAIR manager Paul Piggott says he is aiming to guide the club into the Safety Net Associates Kent League - although he admitted that the Gillingham based club have some obstacles in the way, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Darland Avenue outfit sit proudly at the top of the Vandanel Kent County League Premier Division table going into the Christmas break and are unbeaten in all of their 12 league games with 9 wins and three draws.
They are one point clear of Bridon Ropes and Piggott told www.kentishfootball.co.uk that he is pleased with the start of their campaign.
He said: “We’re pleased with the way we’ve started. We’ve set our targets quite high again this season and so far so good.
“The boys have done really well for themselves and have trained hard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they work hard for each other and the little bit of cream each player in the squad has got comes out and they work hard for the results they get.
“I think we’re still one of the teams to beat. To be honest with you I don’t ask any of the other managers or teams anything but we know week in, week out we get a hard game of football, so yes, I think when any team is fairly successful in your league the other teams want to take your scalp.”
Plans for step 6 football in Kent next season continue to gather pace after a number of clubs have expressed their interest.
A total of 28 clubs (including Hollands & Blair) have put themselves forward for the new league, which will aim to bridge the gap between the Safety Net Kent League and the Vandanel Kent County League at step 5 and 7 respectively.
Clubs will now be inspected by independent FA representatives over the next two months before the steering group is due to meet again in early March.
In a statement, Safety Net Associates Kent League chairman Denise Richmond said: "It's another step along the process that will see this important addition to football in Kent and the surrounding areas.”
She added: "I think everyone is encouraged by the large interest shown in step 6 by the clubs. This was the first formal chance that they had to declare their interest and they seem to have taken it with both hands."
"There is still a strong will to make this league happen from all parties concerned."
Piggott, the former manager of Kent League side Lordswood, said: “We want to be in the Kent League. As a club that’s our target.
“There’s quite a few obstacles in the way at the moment. All this step five, six, seven business is irrelevant to me really because at the end of the day the Kent League is where we want to be but unfortunately the football side of the club has progressed a lot quicker than the off-the-field side of it.
“But the club, finances permitting, are trying their best to get the facilities up to the standard that we can enter the Kent League because at the end of the day that’s where we want to be.
“The stand can be done, we’ve got that in place as far as I’m aware. It’s planning permission for our changing rooms, we’re having problems with that at the moment. There’s letters and drawings going to and fro to the council, but it’s in progress.
“The finances for the club is there to build the new changing rooms, which is what we need as our ones are too small.
“Everything is there in place, we’re just waiting for the permission to go ahead to build the changing rooms. They can be done, the stand can be done, that’s not a problem, but the lights we might have one or two issues with that but it’s a work in progress that we’re on at the moment.”
Hollands & Blair are an impressive 13 points clear of last season’s champions, Stansfeld Oxford & Bermondsey Club, who are in a disappointing eighth place in the table.
“Stansfeld are the league champions, we’d like to beat them because they’re the league champions, as much as other teams like to beat us,” added Piggott.
“I’ve looked at their results and they’ve had some funny results this year. I’m not sure how many players they’ve lost this year but luckily we kept most of ours and we were able to add one or two players and we’ve been a little bit more consistent this year.”
Blair welcome Canterbury City to Star Meadow on Bank Holiday Monday, 3 January 2011 (1:30pm kick-off).
Canterbury sit in fourth place in the table, with 25 points from 13 games, and are only five points behind Piggott’s men.
“They’re one of the sides we haven’t played yet, so we’re looking forward to playing them,” said Piggott.
“We drew at their place and I think we narrowly pipped them at ours (last season). I looked at their results and they’re scoring a lot of goals and I notice they’ve got one or two ex-Kent League players in there.
“They’ll be looking to do well this year but we want to get to where we want to get to and we need to get results - but they will make it tough for us.”
Canterbury’s ambitions are clear, especially as they now groundshare Herne Bay’s Winch’s Field at Stanley Gardens.
“Fair play to them!” added Piggott. “Like I say, any team in that league should be looking to progress to go in the next, that’s the way football works.
“I’d take my hat off to them because they’ve got the off-the-field things in order to do that if they were successful in our league.
“I’d like to think we’re in the same position as theirs as we want to win our league and get into the league above.”
Visit Hollands & Blair’s website: www.hollandsandblair.co.uk
Hollands & Blair v Canterbury City
Vandanel Kent County League Premier Division
Bank Holiday Monday 3 January 2011
Kick Off 1:30pm
At Star Meadow Sports Club, Darland Avenue, Gillingham, Kent ME7 3AP
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