KENT SENIOR TROPHY FINAL: McMahon tells VCD: We can handle pressure, can you? - EXCLUSIVE

MANAGER Keith McMahon explained why his Thamesmead Town side were not celebrating wildly after they brought the Kent Senior Trophy back to Bayliss Avenue for the third time in six years today, writes Stephen McCartney.

James Brown and Dean Kearley lifted the silverware following their 2-0 win over nine-man Beckenham Town on a cut-up pitch at Welling United’s Park View Road.

Goals from Pedro Knight (5 minutes) and a looping Junior Baker header (35) were enough to beat a Beckenham side that had their goalkeeper Grant Hall red carded after just 50 SECONDS after a professional foul on Richard Dimmock a yard outside the penalty area.

Beckenham defender John Maloney also saw red for a crunch challenge on Brown after 32 minutes, which left the midfielder with a shocking gash on his lower back/backside.

Despite Beckenham enjoying plenty of second half pressure they couldn’t find a way past goalkeeper Chris Conneally, 24.

A home victory over Faversham Town next Saturday will see the club, that have spent £20,000 on ground improvements to bring Bayliss Avenue up to Ryman League standard before the £4m re-development of their ground at the end of the year, promoted.

“We need to finish the job off, maybe Saturday but the bread and butter is the league,” McMahon said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“Today was difficult. You have to give Beckenham a hell of a lot of credit. They kept coming at us, we didn’t play our best but people say who knows if they had eleven men on the pitch. We might have played a bit better as well.

“The conditions didn’t help. Fair play to the referee, I thought he was superb. He had two massive decisions to make and I thought they were both spot on.”

Speaking about the pitch that cut-up throughout the game, McMahon, whose Thamesmead side and Beckenham play on perfect pitches, said: “We had a shower about an hour before (the game). It was very firm, the pitch was very, very firm. It just sat on top then it stopped and then half hour before the heavens opened and (puddles were) everywhere.

“There were a couple of areas that the ball stuck but that’s part of playing football. You can’t all play on billiard tables every week. You’ve got to be able to play on all football pitches.

“We kept trying to play and we kept giving the ball away. Every time we got the ball forward, especially first half, we thought we were going to score but we just chose the wrong options sometimes and once we went 1-0 up they had a player sent off.

“I thought we just relaxed and thought we’d go on and win this and Beckenham didn’t sit back, they threw bodies forward and caused some problems and Chris (Conneally) had to make a couple of really good saves.

“But defensively I thought we defended very, very well as a side. I thought our shape was a little bit lacklustre, especially in the second half, our midfield didn’t really close the ball down well enough and we let them play a little bit but overall I’m not that fussed.

“The people who did watch today didn’t really see the best of Thamesmead Town.”

On not overdoing it with the celebrations, McMahon explained that their main attention turns to beating Faversham Town at Bayliss Avenue next Saturday to seal the Kent League title and with it promotion into the Ryman League.

“Everyone’s focused on next week,” said McMahon. “The league’s our priority and we didn’t even speak about the Cup Final until last Saturday.

“Everything we’ve done we’ve done things properly but the lads can enjoy their day, enjoy the evening but we know deep down the league’s our main priority.

“If we get over the line, then I think we’ll have a big celebration at the end.”

McMahon believes second placed VCD Athletic will crack under pressure at Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday night.

Vickers, under Dean Frost, had lost the title to Whitstable Town in the last week of last season at the same venue and the same thing could happen again.

If Paul Foley’s men fail to win at Culverden Stadium then Mead could be celebrating promotion without even playing.

“The pressure’s not on us, the pressure’s on VCD to win,” said McMahon. “At the end of the day we don’t have to win another game, they’ve got to win all there’s. If they lose a game, it’s all over.

“People have said we’ve been under pressure for the last 12 weeks but we’ve won 12 games out of 12 in the league so I think we’re coping with pressure.

“Even today we’ve been put under a lot of pressure but we coped, we kept a clean sheet.”

Visit Thamesmead Town’s website: www.thamesmeadtownfc.co.uk