I want this side to be the best Erith Town side, says manager Tony Russell

ERITH TOWN manager Tony Russell says he has set his side an internal challenge to become the best side that the club has ever produced.



The Dockers travel to Herne Bay in a top-of-the-table clash tomorrow, with 43 points from 21 games, ten points behind Herne Bay, who have a game in hand.

Erith Town became the first side to beat Simon Halsey’s team this season, winning a FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie 3-2 at Winch’s Field back in September.

When asked what he is expecting at Winch’s Field against a Herne Bay side that have lost just once in the Kent Hurlimann Football League this season, Russell said: “In terms of them or in terms of the result?  In terms of them it’s self-explanatory really.  They’re a good side. I expect them to be well organised as always, tough to beat.  Tactically and things like that you pretty know what you’re going to expect.  They back themselves.  They’ve got good players, whether they’re going to worry about us, I don’t know.

“From our point of view the prep work has been really good. We trained on Wednesday for a good hour.  What we’re going to do with the ball and without the ball. Preparation wise it’s gone really, really well.

“We’ll have no excuses on Saturday.  The boys’ have got a good session in.  There’s a good buzz around the place.

“We’re going there to win.  We respect Herne Bay as they’ve got a fantastic club and a fantastic team, what they’ve done in the Vase and the League.

“We certainly don’t fear them or anyone else for that matter.  We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves and do our jobs as individuals.  If we do that then we’ve got half a shout.”

Herne Bay have not lost back-to-back games this season, but they suffered a 1-0 away defeat to VCD Athletic in the first-leg of the Macron Kent League Cup Semi-Final last Tuesday.

And having knocked the FA Carlsberg Vase semi-finalisits out of the FA Cup, Russell reflected back on their deserved win, when they out-passed Herne Bay.

“We thoroughly deserved it.  The scoreline probably flattered them a little bit,” reflected Russell.

“I thought we were decent.  We went there with a game plan and controlled the game really. 

“We done really well.  They were really below par.  I spoke to Simon after and he was a bit disappointed how they approached it.  They’re a proud club and Simon’s a proud man and he won’t want us going there and beat them twice at their ground.  I don’t think there’s many teams who have gone to Herne Bay and won twice in a season.

“He ain’t going to want that!  I know they’ll certainly be up for it. 

“Realistically, if they beat us tomorrow that’s us out of the equation and they’ll keep picking people off from that respect.”

Russell explained why he is keeping the pressure off his side.

“To be fair, 100% honestly, we have never spoken about winning the league or things like that,” he said.

“If I learnt anything from last year, when we hit the top, all my team talk was about ‘we must win this game and we must do this’. You almost put too much pressure on.  When you play the sort of football we play, you need people to relax and if you make them too tense and you don’t pass the ball, you look a really average side.

“So what we try to do is worry about ourselves.  That’s what we do.  We’re in good form. We had a disappointing result at Woodstock and to be honest we dominated that game and missed a ridiculous amount of chances.

“There was no coincidence Adam (Williams) went back to Ebbsfleet the week before and we brought Alex Tiesse back and every chance fell to him and they had their first shot on goal after 70 minutes and it went in and we were chasing the game.

“We’re playing well. We went to Holmesdale last week and done exactly the same and we won 6-0 and it could’ve been a lot more.”

Russell wants his current crop of players to go down in Erith Town folklore as the best yet.

“We had a big talk a few months ago, what we want to do and where we’re trying to go,” explained Russell.

“Last year we let the season go and we’ve set ourselves some internal challenges.  Like now after the Holmesdale game we’ve crossed that off.  We’ve got more points than we had last year. I think we finished on 41 points last year and we’ve got 43.  I congratulated them and said we’re better than last years’ team.

“Now the next challenge to them is Erith Town’s all time points tally is 53 points and that season they played 32 games but that’s the challenge I set them.

“Can we be the all-time points scorers for Erith and beyond that Erith once finished fifth under Tommo (Mark Tompkins) – can we finish higher than that?

“We’re not looking at anyone else. We’re setting ourselves internal challenges.

“I want this side to be the best side that Erith Town (have ever had).  What comes after that comes after that. 

“If you look at our season we’ve beaten all the top sides and lost to the bottom sides – Deal, Cray Valley.  We drew with Greenwich Borough at home.  We’ve done the double over VCD. We’ve played Herne Bay twice and not lost to them.  We beat Tunbridge Wells the other week and we beat Erith & Belvedere and Beckenham.

“It’s no point looking at the fixtures with us.  What we have to be focused on every game. I got in early on Wednesday and I want to go to Herne Bay and expect a win. That’s the mind-set.  I’m not going there to hold on and keep it tight.  From minute dot we’re going to win that game of football. Everything we’ve worked on is to win a game of football. We’re not going for a 0-0.”

Meanwhile, general manager Ian Birrell says it was a pleasure to welcome Notts County to Erith Sports Stadium this afternoon.

The League One outfit are staying in nearby Bexleyheath and used the facilities at the club ahead of their trip to The Valley to play league leaders Charlton Athletic tomorrow.

They are managed to Keith Curle, 48, who has played for Bristol Rovers, Torquay United, Bristol City, Reading, Wimbledon, Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Barnsley and Mansfield Town.

Curle made 831 appearances for those clubs, scoring 41 goals and he was handed three caps by England.

Mr Birrell said:  “Erith Town today entertained Notts County Football Club for a training session. 

“They’re due at The Valley tomorrow to play Charlton Athletic and they approached us with a view to use our ground for a pre-match training session.  Manager Keith Curle was with his squad of eighteen.

“It was a big surprise.  We got a phone call yesterday from them because they’re staying at Bexleyheath, so they looked at local grounds and they’ve given us a call and we’re happy to facilitate them.  It was a pleasure for us to have them.”

Visit Erith Town’s website: www.erithtown.com

Herne Bay  v  Erith Town
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Saturday 10^th March 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Winch’s Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG