Hopefully we can do the island proud and bring back the glory days, says Sheppey boss Kevin Hake

SHEPPEY & SHEERNESS United manager Kevin Hake says he wants to guide the club back to the big time.

The Ites sealed promotion into the Kent Invicta League following their comfortable 7-0 home win over an Erith 147 Sports side that turned up with ten-men and finished with nine through injury last Saturday.

The club finished runners-up in the Haart of Kent County League Premier Division table, one point behind champions Metrogas, who did not apply for promotion.

The Ites will be one of sixteen member clubs in the Kent Invicta League and will revert back to their former name Sheppey United when the new season gets underway.

The new season will bring many challenges for the member clubs as they will all need to meet The FA G Grade by the end of the season with full promotion and relegation coming into effect.

Sheppey United were founder members of the Southern League Division Two back in 1894-95 and have switched between that league and the Kent League ever since.

The club last played Southern League football between 1984-90 and Kent League football between 1990-2001, when they club resigned from the league after 21 league games.

Sheppey have made their way back to where they are today and Hake says he wants to take the Islanders back to where they once were.

“We’ve got a great history behind us and it’s just really criminal why there’s not a senior team on the island but hopefully we can start doing the island proud and getting up to where the glory days were,” said Hake, 38.

“The team behind me is great. We’ve certainly got fantastic ambitions off-the-field so there’s nothing really stopping us apart from our own belief.”

Fleet Leisure finished their last Kent County League campaign in fourth-place and Lee Richmond guided the club to a top four finish in their inaugural Kent Invicta League campaign last season.

However, manager Lee Richmond faced the sack in the week after they went down to a 3-0 defeat to Sutton Athletic in the Pain & Glory Sports Kent Invicta League Challenge Trophy Final.

“Hopefully I don’t get the same result as their manager got by getting sacked unfortunately,” added Hake.

“It’s there for the taking. We here Hollands & Blair will be in the league next year and I believe Lydd are going to be there. Sutton will be a force next season. 

“We’re under no illusions. We just want to be a part of that. That’s where we want to be.  Now we want to be in the Invicta League, the Kent League and (Ryman) League.

“We want to bring the glory days back to the island because the island deserves that.”

Sheppey passed their initial ground grading before their last game of the season and must have floodlights, stand and hard standing in place by March 2015.

“The chairman’s done a fantastic job,” said Hake.

“This (Holm Park) was derelict when we took over here. We’ve spent a lot of expense on the pitch, the surrounding area.

“The ambition needs to be right on-the-field and the ambition needs to be right off-the-field.

“We have got an ambitious chairman who wants to drive the club on and I’m an ambitious as a manager and I want to drive the club forward as far as we can take it.

“It’s testament and it’s great to work with both in harmony because if you’ve got it right you can achieve great things.”

The facilities at Holm Park are very impressive.  It’s not often you interview a manager at this level in his own spacious office.

“I can’t complain and never will,” said Hake.

“The chairman would kill me if I blame the facilities that we’ve got here.

“Hopefully we can give an air of professionalism off the field as well with the team that we’ve got here.  That’s what it’s about attracting players.  Hopefully we give an air of professionalism off-the-field as well with the team that I’ve got behind me, but I’m truly blessed here.

“I love it. It’s a big part of me this club and I just want to push it as far as I can take it.”

When asked whether the club will rise up the leagues by a rate of knots, joint-chairman Matthew Smith replied: “We’re working to a five year and a ten-year plan.  Obviously the first five-year plan was to get into the Kent Invicta League. We’ve done that in the first year to be honest so next season we’ll be what next season is.

Mr Smith, who owns his own project management company, added: “We’ll be looking to finish near the top and everything else but the big aim for the club in the next ten years is to get into the Kent League (now called the Southern Counties East Football League) but you can’t run before you can walk.

“We’re quite a level-headed club and we’ll do the right things to get us there.  It’s not a pressure thing that next year we’ve got to be challenging (for the league title). It’s very much consolidation. Let’s see where we are and go from there really.”

Mr Smith, who revealed that he is not from the island, added: “It’s just not about the first team, it’s about the community side of the club.

“We do have two or three pan disability teams. We’ve got a ladies team. We’ve got a girls team. It’s all part of becoming a community hub on the island of Sheppey. That’s the big long and short of it.

“The first team is key to it all because the higher they play the more people want to play for the first team and that’s a massive part of any club, isn’t it?

“The Kent League is what the aspirations are and beyond but it’s got to be done in the right way. It’s not let’s try and get there in two or three years. It’s about a plan and that’s what we’re working to.”

Visit Sheppey & Sheerness United’s website: www.sheppeyandsheernessunited.hitsfootball.co.uk