I’ve said from day one we’ll take every competition seriously, says Lordswood boss Richard Styles

LORDSWOOD manager Richard Styles says he’s going all out to beat Fisher in the Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Second Round on Wednesday night.

The club have suffered defeats to Sheppey United (0-3) in the Kent Reliance Senior Trophy Second Round before Joe Grant’s hooked angled drive inside the opening 11 minutes was enough for Hellenic League side Bracknell Town to progress through to the last 32 of The Buildbase FA Vase.

It was a day to forget for Kent sides in the competition at the weekend as Beckenham Town, Sevenoaks Town and Whitstable Town also lost, leaving Crowborough Athletic to carry the flag for the Southern Counties East Football League on 6 January 2018.

Lordswood turn their attentions to play Fisher, a side that are in fourth-place in the First Division table with 29 points on the board from 15 league outings.

Lordswood, naturally, go into the tie as favourites, sitting in the top five in the Premier Division, with 28 points from 15 games, only four points adrift of leaders Sevenoaks Town, who do have two games in hand.

“It’s our third Cup game in a row, it’s the only one we’re left in now because we’ve gone out of the last two,” said Styles, who will travel to another First Division side in the shape of Stansfeld in the last 16 if they progress.

“We’ve got to recover, rebuild and go again and get through to the next round of this one now and give everything we’ve got in this Cup.

“We’ll go strong for it 100%.  I’ve said from day one we’ll take every competition seriously, without a doubt and do all we can to get through and get as far as we can so we’ll focus on that as well as the league.”

Cray Valley visit Martyn Grove for a league game next Saturday.  The Millers are massively underperforming in the bottom five in the Premier Division table, with 18 points from their 17 league games.

“That’s not an easy game, no game is easy,” said Styles.

“It will be another tough game, another challenge but we’ll recover well, work, do our thing and we’ll prepare and be raring to go like we always are.

“I just want to get through December, if we can get through December and January staying around where we are, then I’ll be happy.  Then we can re-asses and go from there really.

“We have had a good start of the season when you compare where we were last year. It’s chalk and cheese but we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.

“We go game-by-game like I’ve always said and we’ll focus on the next one and then we’ll move on and go from there.  That’s all we’ll do and every league game we’ll try to get as many points as we possibly can.”

Visit Lordswood’s website:  www.lordswoodfc.co.uk

Lordswood  v  Fisher
Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Second Round
Wednesday 6^th December 2017
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Martyn Grove, North Dane Way, Chatham, Kent ME5 8YE