I want people to think about what we do all the time, says Sevenoaks Town boss Simon Jones

SEVENOAKS TOWN’S returning manager Simon Jones says he wants his side to be competitive in the Kent League this season.



Jones, 44, who enjoyed a successful season in charge at Greatness Park during the 2009-10 season, where he lead the club to sixth-place and a Kent League Cup Final,
took charge of his first game upon his return yesterday.

They came away with a 3-1 victory over Kent Invicta League side Rusthall, courtesy of goals from the returning Jamie Johnson and strike pairing Karl Balogan and Gerald Akosa.

Jones has explained why he has given his side Tuesday night off and they will return to training on Thursday evening, before facing Ryman League Division One North side Tilbury at Greatness Park on Saturday.

He said: “We’ll have a look at it.  It’s been a good, hard, 60 minutes for the boys.  I’ll probably give them enough freedom on Tuesday. We’ll get them back in on Thursday and prepare ourselves for Tilbury and take it slowly and build them up gradually.”

Jones faces a race-against-time to get his side ready for the Kent League opener on Saturday 4 August.

“There has been so much to do, it’s a bit overwhelming at the minute to get a team together in a short period of time before the season starts, but yes, overall I’d rather be doing it than not.

“I feel a little bit lucky to be in it because I thought Keith (Levett), my successor did quite a good job and moved on.  I thought Darren (Anslow), give him another year would’ve had a really successful team but those guys have moved on (to Chatham Town and Cray Valley) but the opportunity was there so when the chairman (Tony Smart) said ‘look, I’m without a manager, would you like to come in and get involved?’ I thought, yes, I do fancy it now.”

Jones added: “It’s all hands to the pump but we have to do it tactically and with a structure to get the boys ready and conditioned.  Sometimes there’s a tendency to do too much in pre-season.  You could have players who are carrying knocks, carry knocks over the season so we’re trying to do it sensibly.

“Yes, there’s lots of games but it gives players’ an opportunity that they want to be involved in the club and secondly they’re good enough to play for the club.”

Jones chopped and changed his team around a little bit too much during their opening work-out at Jockey Farm yesterday, but he is already thinking about reducing numbers.

He said: “What we’ll naturally do now is start narrowing the field. We’ve probably had overall about 40-50 players at trials so to be down to 24-25 we’ve actually halved what we’ve looked at.

“In terms of the next round we’ll be making decisions as we go through.  There will be one or two players I’ll talk to today and say they’re not quite ready and they need to work on a couple of areas.”

Sevenoaks Town finished last season third-from-bottom in Anslow’s only season in charge of the club, but Jones admitted he hasn’t set his side any targets this time out.

When asked about his aspirations for the season ahead, Jones replied, “I can’t answer that at the minute.  I’ve not seen the League for a few years now. I don’t know what the standard looks like.  I don’t know what the play looks like. I don’t know what people are doing.

“In my head I only have one objective and that’s to be competitive, number one.   Let’s make every game we go into hard for the opposition and let’s try and play our football.  Where that takes us, I don’t know.

“I’m not even going to chance my arm where we want to be but all I want us to be is competitive.

“Some people have made criticisms of other people and said at times we weren’t competitive in the past.  That’s something I don’t want us to be.  I want people to think about what we do all the time.”

Visit Sevenoaks Town’s website: www.sevenoakstownfc.org  

Sevenoaks Town  v  Tilbury
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 14^th July 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX