I'm hoping we'll go up into the Kent Invicta League, says Eltham Palace manager Terry Naden

ELTHAM PALACE manager Terry Naden says he is hoping the club get the all-clear to clinch promotion into the Kent Invicta League next season.



The club finished in third-place in the Haart of Kent County League Premier after finishing seventeen points adrift of champions Bromley Green, who do not have the facilities for Step Six.

Eltham Palace play their home games at Green Court Road Sports Club in Crockenhill, which boasts a clubhouse, dressing rooms, a covered seated stand, pitch perimeter, five-a-side artificial training facilities, car park and dug-outs.

All that are missing are floodlights, but Naden, 32, says the club are looking to get the ground up to scratch to gain promotion and to join Orpington in the Kent Invicta League next season.

“The application went in for promotion into the Invicta League,” said Naden.

“We’ve had good, positive meetings with the committee of the Invicta League and hoping ratification is given for our application.”

It costs the club £300 to stage home matches, which includes match officials, refreshments and pitch hire, but the club do not make a penny from the bar as it’s a privately owned club.

Naden said: “It’s a decent set up here and there’s not many clubs around this sort of level that have the facilities we do.

“It all just needs tidying up a little bit.  There’s some work we have to get done and there’s commitments we have to make to the League about the work we have to get down.  I’m hoping we can get through that and certainly play in the Invicta League next year.”

When asked what they and Orpington must do, the Eltham Palace boss replied, “There’s some hardstanding that needs to go down, which we’ve got quotes for already and then just a tidying up around the ground . 

“We’ve got the stand and the dug-outs, the clubhouse and the changing facilities.  The facilities are probably as good as any other in the Invicta League bar your Ashford’s.

“There’s not loads of work to be done.  The problem with a club like ours is everything we do we have to pay for ourselves.  We have no investment.  We’re still a club that charges subs, they pay a signing on fee and on a weekly basis so it’s hard. Even work that costs £500-£600 that’s money we’ve got to find before we do the work.

“We’re confident we can get the work done in the time allowed and I’m hoping, fingers crossed, that we’ll go up.”

With the A20 situated within touching distance of the ground, previous occupants Alma Swanley and Furness failed in their bid to install floodlighting at the ground during their Kent League days.

Naden said: “We’ve been told applications have gone in the past when Alma Swanley/Furness at the time wasn’t given permission, but technology has changed since then.

“Orpington are already in the league and we’re making a joint application for the lights.

“Time will tell. It’s got everything that we need apart from those lights and I know that’s a big ask.”

Naden says the club has come a long way since playing as a pub side in Plumstead.

He said: “I think the hard thing for us is the realisation of where we’ve actually come from.  Five years’ ago we were the Melbourne, which was a pub side in Plumstead.

“We’ve progressed over the last 5-6 years. We’ve had two promotions on the bounce already. If we get promotion that will be three promotions on the bounce and I don’t think as a club we realise just how far we’ve come.

“We were playing in the South London Alliance six years ago and then to be knocking on the door of the Invicta League and to progress that far, not on an application like everyone of just being let in.  I don’t want to sound disrespectful because there’s a lot of clubs that deserve to go in.

“We’ve progressed. We’ve gone up from Division Two, Division One and hopefully we’ll go up from the Premier – so yes it’s exciting.”

With clubs like Bromley, Cray Wanderers, Dartford and Welling Untied and numerous others on their doorstep, Naden will look into the possibility of starting their games earlier than the rest to attract more people to their games and the club will issue a programme next season.

“It will be difficult for a team like ours,” admitted Naden.

“We’re not going to have members of the public that want to come and watch so that’s always going to be a stumbling block.

“The other thing is we’re not going to grow.  We’ll always struggle with a fan base. I’m under no illusions by going in the Invicta League all of a sudden 200 locals are going to come and watch us.  It doesn’t work like that, but we’ll do what we can on that front and we’ll do some advertising and some marketing of the club and see where it takes us.”

Visit Eltham Palace’s website:  www.clubwebsite.co.uk/elthampalacefc01