I'm only going to settle for first place next season, vows Lovell - EXCLUSIVE

STEVE LOVELL has vowed to make his Ashford Town side league champions in fourteen months time, writes Stephen McCartney.

Ashford’s chances of making the Ryman League Division One South play-off’s this season are slim following their 3-1 home defeat to Walton & Hersham tonight.

That result leaves the club in fourteenth place in the table on 34 points with sixteen league games remaining - 16 points adrift of the final play-off berth.

But the former Sittingbourne boss wants to finish top of the pile next season.

“We’re re-building, re-building all the time but for this season now I’ve got a squad here that will continue until the end of the season,” he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“Then I will look at it and review it for next year.

“I want to be at the top next year if I’m still in this league. I want to be up at the top, I’m not going to settle for second, third or fourth - I want to be top and that’s what I’ll be aiming for.”

A crowd of just 180 watched tonight’s match - the lowest crowd to watch a league game at The Homelands this year.

“I can’t do anything about that,” said Lovell. “All I do is put a team on the football pitch to perform.

“If people don’t come and watch us, they don’t come and watch us! You can’t make people’s minds up for them.

“Everybody likes to play in front of a decent crowd but you can’t make them come, can you?

“People who want to come here are supporters of Ashford Town. They’re the people that I care about, not the ones that stay away. It’s the ones that turn up.

“If the ones who want to stay away, it’s down to them. I’m not bothered about that. All I’m bothered about is putting a decent team out on the pitch and that’s what we’re doing.”

On the club’s play-off chances, Lovell admits his side face a tall order to make up ground following tonight’s defeat - their first in five games.

“It makes it hard now that we didn’t win tonight,” he said. “We’d like to have got something out of the game but we’ve still got sixteen games to go, who knows?”

“We will approach the games the same.  The boys worked really hard tonight, played well and I thought we were unlucky to lose 3-1. The score flattered them a bit especially after the first half performance, which I thought was fantastic football.”

Lovell’s men face a hectic period during the last ten weeks of the season, starting with their trip to Burgess Hill Town on Saturday.

“We’ll deal with it!” promised Lovell. “We’ve got a big enough squad, we’ve got like 20 players here, they’re all eager to play so we’ll deal with it when it comes.

“We can’t do anything about that, a backlog is a backlog, so we’ll have to deal with it and get on with it and get the best that we can get out of it.”

The club announced tonight that their home game against Walton Casuals, which was postponed at the weekend, will take place on Tuesday, 1^st April.

And chairman Mark Jenner, writing in tonight’s programme, said: “What a disappointment this week having two consecutive games called off especially as the weekend weather was perfect for a game.

“We all know the soil conditions at the Homelands are poor, until the last few years we would have been playing on rolled mud by now but even so this has been the worst season for postponements I can remember.”

Secretary Elaine Orsbourne also explained why Saturday’s game was postponed - despite the Garden of England basking in bright sunshine.

“On behalf of the club I firstly like to apologise to those supporters who made the journey to The Homelands on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon expecting to watch our continued run of form,” she wrote in her excellent programme.

“Whilst the pitch was miraculously drying out from the downpours at the beginning of the week that had necessitated the postponement of the Eastbourne Town game, there were still areas causing concern.

“As soon as our groundsman voiced these concerns to me, I contacted our local suffering referee to view the pitch with him.

“There was one particular area at the far side (now technically referred to as the left-back position the dug-out side) where the feet sank and the mud moved.

“The groundsman agreed with the referee that this could be dangerous and, following discussion with the match referee who also knew our pitch well, advised that there was no alternative but to postpone the game for player safety.”

Meanwhile, off the heavy pitch, the club are staging a fans’ forum at The Homelands on Thursday, 21^st February, from 7pm.

It is planned that, during the evening, the Supporters’ Club present a new club tie to each of the junior team members.

It is also hoped that the evening will allow the supporters club to put forward ideas on how they can best help the club to progress a higher profile in the area.

Visit Ashford Town’s website: www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

Burgess Hill Town v Ashford Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 16^th February 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Leylands Park, Maple Drive, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 8DL