It's a sad day for everybody connected with Ashford Town Football Club, says hurt Lovell

Monday 02nd August 2010

LOYAL Ashford Town manager Steve Lovell has confirmed by text message at 21:07 on Monday 2 August 2010 that following a conversation with sole owner Tony Betteridge that the “club has gone,” writes Stephen McCartney.

Betteridge - who owns the Freehold to Homelands Stadium - and Don Crosbie have ripped the heart and sole out of the Kent club and it will only be playing youth team football this coming season.

The Homelands outfit have suffered fatally by the two owners’ personal battles to take control of the club and as a result the football supporters of Ashford will not have a senior team to support when the new season kicks off this weekend.

When stalwarts like the versatile secretary Elaine Orsborne and her husband Alan, who undertook duties like administration, kit washing, boardroom hospitality and treating injured players, decide to jump ship, then you know you’re in trouble.

These are the kind of people that made Ashford Town Football Club what it is - and for it to be taken away is simply criminal!

Manager Steve Lovell worked in difficult circumstances last season, battling against all the odds to maintain the club’s Ryman League status, and that was secured on the final day of last season with a 2-1 home win over Chatham Town.

The Welshman cares passionately about football - as do all the loyal and long-suffering supporters and committee - but www.kentishfootball.co.uk is saddened to report that one of my local clubs (I live in Tunbridge Wells) will not be playing first team football during the 2010-11 season.

In April 1930, Sir Charles Iggleden (then Editor of the Kentish Express) presided over a meeting to form a senior football club in Ashford and subsequently applied to compete in the Kent League, Kent Senior Cup and the FA Cup.

Ashford Town was elected to the Kent League in 1930 and finished their first season in an impressive sixth position.

It was around then that the club acquired its nickname of the “Nuts and Bolts”, as many of the members were drawn from the ranks of skilled engineers in the railway works.

The Kingsnorth based club - four miles south of Ashford International Train Station - have now paid the ultimate price and have fallen off the rails.

The two owners arrived in March 2007 promising the earth, signed a couple of loan players from Birmingham City to help then manager John Cumberbatch avoid relegation. They appointed Clive Walker as boss, then got rid of him despite a healthy league position within his first season at the helm, before enticing Welshman Lovell from Sittingbourne in November 2007, where he quit his job at Football League outfit Gillingham.

In June 2008, the owners unveiled plans for a £8.5m new Sports Village redevelopment at The Homelands, which includes a 5,000 seater-stadium, a 100-bed hotel and a Sporting Village complex, including an indoor tennis centre and all-weather pitches.

But this summer the club has gone from one crisis to another - and without a hotel in sight!

The two owners have fought each other in the High Court, threw out tenants Maidstone United, put the club in administration, were suspended by the Football Association for an unpaid debt of £2,000 to Ebbsfleet United, withdrew the club from the Ryman Football League and Mr Betteridge even claimed that the club would be playing Kent League football this season.

Did you really believe him? Because I didn’t!

The Kent League had already published it’s opening day’s fixtures - 16 sides without Ashford Town - and even the Kent County League published their top-flight fixtures - and there was no sign of the Nuts & Bolts there either.

Lovell could have easily jumped the sinking ship, but to his, and the players’ credit, they prepared for the season ahead, despite the chaos going on around them.

Lovell has tonight revealed his true feelings on recent events to www.kentishfootball.co.uk, starting with his conversation with Mr Betteridge tonight.

“He basically said that under all circumstances that have gone on, it’s impossible really to start the season with too many things needed to be done in too little time, so to do it properly it will take a lot of time to put in place so basically he said there is no way he could do it and you’ve got to respect his decision and you do,” said Lovell.

“I’ve been in football long enough to know these things happen and you’ve got to just get on with it.

“It’s very disappointing. I’m disappointed for the players, the supporters, for everybody connected with the football club, who have worked very hard over the time I’ve been there to make it work, but I think it’s TWO people really whose made this happen and it’s a shame”

When asked whether the club has gone bust, Lovell admitted that he knows as much as the man on the street.

He said: “I don’t know the situation. All I know Steve is that I’ve been told that there will be no football at Homelands connected to Ashford Football Club and that’s all I wanted to know as a manager so I can go and tell my players they’re free to do whatever they want.

All of last season’s squad including Darren Ibrahim, Carl Harrold, Lawrence Harvey, Lee Hockey, Mitchell Sherwood, Ross Morley, Matt Newman, Mark Lovell, Danny Lye, Toby Ashmore, Ronnie Dowlan and summer signings Tom Bryant (Tonbridge Angels) and Peter Williams (Folkestone Invicta) have all showed their loyalty to Lovell.

He said: “All these players have stayed loyal to us and wanted to give it a big go this year in the Kent League - if we could have gone in there.

“Speaking to the boys they were really excited about what was going to happen, but obviously it didn’t happen and they’ve got to look for clubs elsewhere now.

“A lot of them can play a lot higher than the Kent League but they wanted to stay and fight for the football club and for myself and for Mark Patterson and it’s a shame that it’s gone this way.”

Thankfully, Lovell will not be completely unemployed, as during the day he works as a coach for Charlton Athletic, but he begins his search for a new managers or coaching role here in Kent.

Rainham resident Lovell said: “Well, it looks like Steve, I’m not employed or wanted by Ashford anymore!

“I’m a football man and I’ve just saying to my wife here, it’s the first time in 34 years that at this moment I will be starting a football season not at a club, either playing or coaching, which is a shame.

“It happens, it hasn’t happened to me in all this time, so it will be quite an unique occasion.

“Obviously I don’t want to be out of football for too long. Saturday’s have always been about football, as have midweek’s, so it will be strange, but as I say, that’s the way it goes. I have to see what turns up.”

Ashford Town could be playing football this coming season - but at youth team level - as the youth-set up is set-apart from the main club.

“It is separate from the football club and there’s a lot of youngsters out there and a lot of parents who have committed time and effort and I think they have done nothing wrong as have our (first-team) players not done anything wrong,” said Lovell.

“It’s unfortunate these things happen in football and it affects so many people when you look at how many teams we have got.

“Hopefully everything will be sorted on the youth side and at least we can keep the youth teams going. The managers and all the committee, Steve Hackett, the groundsman and Mark Patterson down the ground have worked very hard to keep it all going, so hopefully the effort will be rewarded and they can start the season.”

So can Ashford Town return to playing first team football in 12 months time?

“What, further down the line?” replied Lovell. “I don’t know. I really don’t know! Those questions can only be answered by, at the moment, the people in charge.

“All I know is that this year I’ve been told Ashford will not be playing football. Whether it can be in the future, I don’t know, so I’m only going what the immediate future is. I have to try and help my players find other clubs and that’s what I will be doing in the next two or three days.

“I’ve always been a manager who likes to take care of the players and I owe them to find them clubs to play their football.

“They’ve been very good, been loyal to myself and it’s just a shame it’s happened as this year I think we would have had a very good season if we could have kept everyone together, as I have done.”

Lovell appreciated my comments in yesterday’s article, praising him for his loyalty to the troubled club - but he admitted that the owners have treated him badly.

“I did read it and thank you for that as that was a nice bit to put in there Steve,” he said.

“I only take people on face value and I try and see people as myself and I trust them and I don’t see any bad in people.

“If anyone tells me something, I believe it. I’ve got no reason not to believe it and I will continue doing that and I just want people being honest with me.

“This year and the times I’ve been at Ashford, people haven’t really been honest to me and that has really hurt me!

“They have said things to me which wasn’t the case and I feel quite hurt about that and in the end you’re just a number. In football, you’re just a number, but I’ve never thought that and I know it’s a saying and people say you should always look after number one, but I don’t believe that.

“I think you need people around you. I think I’ve been used and it’s a shame.”

Lovell paid tribute to supporters and the people that care passionately about football and the club.

“It’s a sad day with everybody connected with Ashford Town Football Club,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that put a lot of effort into that club.

“Steve Hackett, the groundsman, and all the way through to Elaine (Orsbourne) who left as the secretary, Alan the kit man and Mark Patterson. Hugo (Langton) from last year, Lee Ealham, Steve Rollings, who does the youth team.

“There’s a lot of people that have worked very hard at the football club and they don’t deserve this. They enjoy going down on a Saturday and supporting our team but as I say it’s only the case of two people that have spoilt this and unfortunately it’s come to the point where it’s the end for this season.

“We can’t do anything about it - people who run football clubs have got their own agenda and we’ve got no say in it.

“You have to respect what they do but when it comes to something like this, it’s not very nice and it shouldn’t be!

“This was a football club that hundreds of people every week would come and support. They were doing no harm to anybody and it’s been taken away from them.

“We will never know the full extent and we will not know the facts and from a personal point of view Steve that really annoyed me because I will never know the full extent of what went on and I’d love to know it and I’m sure I will never get to know it and that’s what hurts me more than anything.”

A Sad day indeed for Ashford Town Football Club. Thanks for the memories. Rest In Peace!

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