I don't really want to be stuck in the Kent Invicta for the next five years, says Sean Glover

ORPINGTON manager Sean Glover says the club have been given the go-ahead by their landlords to install floodlights at their ground.



The O’s hire the Green Court Sports Club in Green Court Road, Crockenhill, which previously staged Kent League football for Furness, who famously beat Dartford to the Kent League title back in 1996, before the club resigned from the league and folded in 2005.

“Green Court have given us the ok to go ahead with that,” said Glover, 30.

“We’ve got the ok, we’re just waiting on planning permission and putting planning permission for the floodlights.

“Floodlights would be an amazing boost for the club and it will enable us to play night games and enter bigger competitions, bigger revenue and it attracts better players as well.

“There’s no money down here at the minute.  With the position in the league, the club has to progress and it has to go forward otherwise there’s no point me being here. 

“They need to progress, we need to progress as a club and I’m looking to progress as a manager, so I don’t really want to stick in the Kent Invicta for the next five years being happy with mediocre football.  That’s why we’ve got the progression for the lights and hopefully we can kick on up the league.”

Glover was asked the timescale of installing the floodlights at the ground, which is situated a goal-kick away from the A20.

He said: “I don’t know any more information that I’ve told you in regards to the lights. We’re waiting on planning permission. We know the sort of lights that we’re after.”

Orpington sit in fourth-place in the Kent Invicta League table with 31 points from sixteen games.  The club are 11 points adrift of league leaders Hollands & Blair.

The O’s are a couple of points behind third-placed Sutton Athletic and Glover wants to leapfrog over James Collins’ side by the end of the season.

“I’m happy with the way the season is going so far,” said Glover.

“Third is definitely an obtainable goal this year and it’s a progression for the club and it’s something that I’ve been looking to do since I’ve been here. 

“I took over when they were bottom of the league, moved them to ninth last year and I set the boys a target of third this year as a realistic target.

“We want to push on as high as we can but a realistic target is third this year, so the boys have got that in their minds this year so they want to keep pushing and push Sutton all the way.”

Orpington thrashed their struggling neighbours Crockenhill 5-0 yesterday, with skipper Glenn Brewer scoring a second half hat-trick after Michael Hapeshis and Filipe Caruacho De Silva (penalty) scored towards the end of the first half.

The O’s next game is a trip seventh-placed Rusthall on Saturday 8 February.

“It’s always a game of two halves at Jockey Farm because it’s on such a slope,” said Glover.

“It will be a tough game. Rusthall gave us a good game here when they played us and nicked a draw here and we dropped two points.

“We’ve got to keep the pressure on Sutton and we’ve just got to keep doing what we do and just keep grinding out results and we’ll be looking to do exactly the same against Rusthall, so three points is the target and hopefully we can keep a bit more heat on Lydd and Sutton.”

Hundreds have games have fallen to the bad weather since December and club’s can expect a fixture backlog before the end of the season.

Orpington have 12 more league games of their 28-match league campaign still to play.

 “I’m not over the moon about it but there’s not a lot we can do about it,” said Glover.

“The weather has dictated an awful lot and it’s just not us, a lot of teams are exactly in the same boat, you need a boat with the weather we’ve had!

“We only had one game in March when the original fixtures came out and that was against Rusthall and that’s been moved on to February and at the minute we’ve got a clean March scheduled so no doubt there will be five games banged into that so that’s good.

“Hopefully there’s not going to be too many double headers and night games.

“I don’t think the double-legged Cup games have really helped us this year.  It didn’t affect us too much because we got knocked out in the first round but I can see the point for the other guys that have continued in the cup and had good runs. It’s taken its toll on them because it’s more games.

“I see what the league are doing there but when you take into account the weather, at this level the pitches aren’t as good as the level up.  I think the double-legged cup games could have been scrapped and just been a one-off.”

Meanwhile, Glover is looking for a friendly match for next Saturday, 1 February, and he can be contacted via private message on twitter at @SGlover135.
 
Visit Orpington’s website: www.orpingtonfc.org.uk