Kent rivals confident of booking trip to Harrow

STEVE BINKS and Neil Cugley are both confident that their sides can finish off the job tomorrow night to seal a trip to Harrow Borough in the first qualifying round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy, writes Stephen McCartney.

For Chatham Town boss Binks, his side have home advantage after their hard-fought 1-1 draw at Folkestone Invicta on Saturday, a game spoilt by the blustery winds and wet conditions.

Chatham had opened the scoring after 28 minutes at the Buzzlines Stadium, against the run of play, when Invicta defender, Liam Friend, making his 99^th start for the club, sliced Darren Smith’s free-kick past goalkeeper Charlie Mitten.

But Folkestone hit back early in the second half when star midfielder Jimmy Jackson scored his fifth goal of the season.

Both managers, however, pray for much better conditions for Tuesday night’s replay at Maidstone Road as they bid to earn a trip to Ryman Premier League side Harrow Borough in the next round on Saturday week.

“In a way, they know they’ve got away with it and they’ll be up for it big time on Tuesday,” warned Binks, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after Saturday’s battle.

“It’ll be good to get them back to our ground and we’re looking forward (to it).”

The victorious club will bank £2,000 in prize money from the Football Association and Binks knows that kind of money is vital to his club.

He said: “There’s good prize money to win in this round. I don’t want to even think about the next round. I just want to get everybody’s heads right for Tuesday.

“We’ve got a couple of players who can come back in, Dan Larkin and Chris Tedder, so (we’re) looking forward to it.”

Chats’ skipper, Richard Avery, was pleased with his team-mates for their battling qualities in the Cheriton Road draw and the former Dartford defender is confident they can take advantage of home comforts.

“There was wind coming around from everywhere, it weren’t going in one particular direction either,” said Avery.

“Folkestone’s a hard place to come so any result down here’s good. It’s going to be hard for them to come to Chatham on Tuesday night as well.

“We played really well and everyone battled so hard. We had chances and they had chances. It was a fairly open game and we are very positive because we worked hard and got what we deserved really.

“We fancy a win on Tuesday night to get through to the next round."

One Folkestone player that could prove the difference tomorrow night is seven-goal striker, James Dryden.

“I’ve played against him a few times,” said Avery. “He can be quiet in spells but he’s always moving. And although you might, as a fan or watching him, you might not notice him but he’s always making, going into spaces and creating chances.”

For Folkestone boss Cugley he was so desperate to avoid a replay ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Leatherhead.

The long-serving boss feels ever-presents Matt Bourne, Dryden, Friend, Lee Gledhill, Mark Green, Nick Humphrey, Jackson and Mitten, who have played in all of their fourteen games, deserve a bit of a rest ahead of their trip to Fetcham Grove.

“We have got little injuries out there, it’s a shame really because we could have done with a week without a game,” Cugley told www.kentishfootball.co.uk after Saturday’s draw.

“There’s a lot of lads carrying, we had, I think eight or nine that have played in every single game and sometimes, especially first half, it showed a little bit.

“But I think they’re good lads, they battled through it and hopefully we’ll go there and get a result on Tuesday.”

Cugley, though, is confident that his side will finish off the job in Medway tomorrow night.

“We’ve got something about us,” he said. “We’ll go up there and turn them over at their place.

“We’ve just talked about it in there (the home dressing room). Hopefully it won’t be so windy. At times we kept the ball really well, considering the conditions.

“I think it will be more of an entertaining game up there.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game.

Visit Chatham Town’s website:  www.chathamtownfc.net

Visit Folkestone Invicta’s website:  www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Chatham Town v Folkestone Invicta
FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round Replay
Tuesday 7^th October 2008
Kick Off 7:45pm
Maidstone Road Sports Ground, Bourneville Avenue, Chatham, Kent ME4 6ES