I always knew it was going to be quite hard, admits Sevenoaks Town coach Anthony Ferguson

SEVENOAKS TOWN coach Anthony Ferguson insists his side will bounce back after losing their opening two games of the new season, writes Stephen McCartney.


Manager Darren Anslow is the third manager in as many years at the club and he has brought a young team with him to Greatness Park.  They have suffered disappointing defeats to Holmesdale and Corinthian and are third-from-bottom in the Kent League table at this early stage.

Corinthian came away from Greatness Park with a comfortable 2-0 win last night, courtesy of two first half goals from skipper Ryan Johnson and right-back Charlie Burgess, following two set-pieces from former Sevenoaks midfielder Joe Minter.

Attention now turns to Saturday’s crucial FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round home tie against Ash United.

The Hampshire side are in sixth place in the top flight of the Combined Counties League – which is at the same level as Sevenoaks Town.  They have won two and drawn one of their four league games.

“We definitely intend to bounce back.  We may have to get a bit of experience in between now and Saturday,” said Ferguson.

“We will work slightly differently in preparation and we will also look at which changes we need to make in order to be more effective on the pitch and to get a better outcome.”

The 45-year-old asks fans not to panic and that the management team will turn it around.

“A few years’ ago, quite a few Premiership sides lost their first couple of games and went on to play in Europe,” he said, although Sevenoaks don’t have a playing budget to bring in world class footballers.

“What you tend to find is sometimes you need to lose a couple of games in order to learn and that’s where we are at the moment.

“It’s not statistically great, but it is a learning process for a lot of the players.”

Sevenoaks will need to strengthen their young side if they are to climb away from the wrong end of the table.

“I think I always knew it was going to be quite hard,” admitted Ferguson.

“Like I said, for a lot of the players, like anything, you learn by not succeeding straight away and the test for us is how we turn it around, what changes we have to make to make success and that’s the whole ethos of the management team, which is to be steadfast and to learn from the situation that we have created and to make the necessary changes.”

The club’s next league game is away to Canterbury City on 27 August, before hosting Tunbridge Wells on Bank Holiday Monday.

Tunbridge Wells’ manager, Martin Larkin watched last night’s defeat to Corinthian, and Ferguson said: “What we’ve got between the FA Cup game and those matches is a chance to regroup.  It’s a chance to almost reassess and to make the necessary changes to give Canterbury and Tunbridge Wells a bit of a shock.”

Visit Sevenoaks Town’s website: www.sevenoakstownfc.org  

Sevenoaks Town  v  Ash United
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 20^th August 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent