Kentish Football 
I'll be disappointed if we're not in the top two at the end, says Charlton boss Darren Phillips
The south London outfit suffered a blow when they failed in their application to become one of the sixteen founder members of the Kent Invicta League and they remain in the Premier Division of the Kent County League.
They won the “Battle of Charlton” yesterday, comfortably beating Meridian 3-1 – a side that are expected to struggle in the Kent Invicta League this season, especially as they made 23 substitutions during the game and finished second from bottom of the Kent County League Division Two West last season.
Charlton Athletic (Community) have secured a groundshare deal to play at Eltham Town’s Starbuck Close ground, after they weren’t allowed to use Sparrows Lane, New Eltham.
“We did apply to play at the training ground, but that wasn’t passed for the Step Six league. I don’t know particularly why, maybe because it doesn’t have a bar there or something,” said Phillips.
“In terms of the playing pitch, there’s no one better around, so we’ve moved to Eltham Town and use their main pitch there.
“I would imagine it’s Step Six (graded), it’s fenced off, has a bar and stuff so if we’re in a good position at the end of the season we’ll apply.
“Hopefully we can get there, that’s the main thing. That’s the problem. We’ve got the facilities now, but can we make sure we win it to go up. We’re strong enough, we’d be disappointed not to go up.”
Charlton Athletic (Community) kick-off their campaign at home to Snodland on 20 August.
“Snodland are our bogey team, they beat us twice last year but hopefully we’ll get off to a good start,” said Phillips.
“We’ve never lost a game on the opening day of the season. That’s a little fact we mention all the time so we always win our first game of the season, hopefully we’ll keep that going.”
The Haart of Kent County League top-flight will comprise of APM Contrast, Bredhurst Juniors, Bromley Green, Charlton Athletic (Community), Eltham Palace, Farnborough Old Boys Guild, Fleet Leisure, Greenways, Sheerness East, Snodland, Stansfeld Oxford & Bermondsey Club, Staplehurst Monarchs United, Tonbridge Invicta and Tudor Sports.
“I think the league will still be quite strong,” said Phillips. “I think there’s only five teams left from last year. We had our first season in the County Premier last year. I feel there were a couple of teams better than the rest. I don’t think there was much between the top four down to the top half of Division One and they’ve all come up.
“There’s less games to play because there’s only fourteen teams in it. I don’t think there will be any runaway winners. Stansfeld will probably be quite strong, they won it two years ago, they’ll be quite tough.
“I’ll be disappointed if we’re not in the top two at the end.”
Phillips explained the link that Charlton Athletic (Community) has with the main club.
He said: “The link is that players from the community trust programme represent the team. That’s where people like Jordan McTigue, Spencer Illinge and Ali Musa, who were playing for Meridian today. Billy Sennington, the goalkeeper for us, Tyrus Gordan, Tristan Gordan, Corey White, Liam Parker, Nathan Lindo, they’ve all come through programmes in the last three to four years that the community trust run.
“They vary from Estates Leagues, Ball Court programmes, disability programmes, Rep team. Lads’ from all different estates play together, representing the community trust that finish at under 18’s and then they come into senior football so we have a lot of them coming through and then we mix it with people coming through pre-season trials and things like that really. Mental Health programme, that’s another one, the goalkeeper (Dennis Aware) in the second half came through that programme. It’s a mixture really, of people who have applied for a trial.”
Visit Charlton Athletic (Community) website: www.clubwebsite.co.uk/charltoncommunityfc
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