I don't know too much about Orpington to be honest with you, admits Bearsted boss Tony Cornwell

BEARSTED boss Tony Cornwell admits he goes into Saturday’s opening Kent Invicta League game at Orpington not knowing too much about their opposition, writes Stephen McCartney.


The Bearsted chairman has put pressure on the former Maidstone United coach to land the Kent Invicta League title at the first attempt.

When asked how pre-season has gone at the Honey Lane outfit, Cornwell said: “It’s not too bad.  We’ve had quite a lot of players’ down to be fair.  We’ve had between 25-40 players to asses so it’s been quite difficult trying to get everybody some match time.

“We’re getting there.  We’ve nearly got the 18-20 we’re going to sign for the season.  Some of those will be playing a little bit of reserve football and support the first team.  We feel we need those numbers because of injury and obviously we’ve got some midweek fixtures to play as well.”

Looking ahead to the trip to Green Court Road to face unknown quantity, Cornwell said: “I don’t know too much about Orpington to be honest with you.   I’ve looked at a couple of their pre-season results.  I know they played in a league below us last year so there’s teams in the league we know about and other’s we’re not too sure and we can just judge them on the day to be honest with you.”

The Kent Invicta League plays its historic inaugural game on Friday night (7:45pm) when Erith & Dartford Town face neighbours Phoenix Sports at VCD Athletic’s Oakwood Ground at Old Road, Crayford.

Cornwell said: “I’ve watched Ashford a couple of times and I’ll watch the first game of the season so these are the sides I will be interested to have a little bit of a look at.

“It’s a bit of a learning curve really.  I think it’s going to be quite an (interesting) league – sides who want to step up in the next level and I know Ashford with their set-up will be challenging.

“Hollands & Blair won the championship of the Kent County League for two years.  I would say there will be four or five sides who I feel will be the stronger sides and we hope to be one of those.

“The chairman wants us to go straight up in the first season.  It’s quite an experimental thing for me, just to assess the strength of some of these sides.”

The Bearsted boss faces a logistical nightmare on Tuesday, 23^rd August, when Lydd Town visit Honey Lane in their first midweek game.  The match will kick-off at 6:30pm due to no floodlighting at the ground.

Only five clubs Ashford United, Bly Spartans, Erith & Dartford Town, Lewisham Borough and Woodstock Park have floodlights at their grounds.

“The way the season has stepped out, their trying to get a few games early on and to be fair we play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Bank Holiday Monday, so we’ve got quite a hectic start of the season,” said Cornwell.

“The midweek games will always be difficult as we’ve got some lads who work up in London so availability will be a question.

“We’d like to get off to a flying start, but sometimes it’s whose available and who can make some of the midweek games.”

Orpington  v  Bearsted
Kent Invicta League
Saturday 20^th August 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Green Court Road, Crockenhill, Kent BR8 8HJ