Luck hasn't gone for us this year, admits Hollands & Blair boss Paul Piggott

HOLLANDS & BLAIR manager Paul Piggott says he feels lucky that his side have been reinstated back in the Umbro Kent Senior Trophy.



The Gillingham based outfit were defeated in extra-time by Erith & Belvedere in the Sem-Finals, but the Kent League club were thrown out of the competition last Monday for fielding a player who did not have international clearance and was therefore ineligible to play.

Hollands & Blair lock horns with Cray Valley (Paper Mills) at Star Meadow on Saturday to see which team play Kent League outfit Sevenoaks Town in the Final, which takes place at Park View Road on Sunday, 15 April.

“It was a bolt out the blue when we heard,” said Piggott.

“Obviously gutted for Erith & Belvedere because they beat us on the day and they deserved to be in the final, but what’s happened has happened and we just have to do our best because we’ve got a second bite of the cherry.”

It’s very unusual that two sides are reinstated back into the competition, especially as Erith & Belvedere committed the sin back in January and it’s only come to light last Monday.

“Cray Valley are probably just as surprised and shocked to be in a semi again,” added Piggott.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know too much about Cray Valley because they went up last year from our league (the Kent County League), so I would imagine they’ve got a few new players in.

“We’ve made a few phone calls to do a little bit of homework.  We expect a tough game.  We wouldn’t expect anything different from a team in the league above us.”

Piggott added: “Listen, luck hasn’t gone for us this year.  We’ve had a lot of bad luck and this is the only bit of good luck, if you can call it good luck, we’ve had all year.

“We’ll go out there and give it our best shot.  It’s a big carrot at the end of it, a Kent Senior Trophy Final.

“We were absolutely distraught when we went out against Erith & Belvedere, as we felt we matched them but their little bit of quality over 120 minutes pipped us to the post.

“We felt we’re good enough to compete in this competition, so we’ll be there giving it our best shot on Saturday.”

Piggott admitted he is disappointed that his side are in fifth-place in the Kent Invicta League, fourteen points adrift of leaders Bly Spartans.

Piggott, who has four league games still to play, said: “We haven’t been at our best this year.  It’s been  tough for us.  We’ve had the rub of the green over the last two or three years.  We had a lot of results, decisions and luck go our way. That’s deserted us this year.  That’s just the way it is. 

“Injuries and suspensions have hampered any sort of consistency in the side.  If you don’t get consistency in my eyes you don’t get a run of results and that’s what’s affected us.

“People keep asking me about next season.  It’s been a tough season this year. We need to get through this year. 

“Unfortunately a lot of the good youngsters, they’re the ones who have had injuries for the first time in their careers.

“We haven’t been able to blood some of the younger lads that we have in our squad as often as we’d like to, as they’ve been unfortunately injured as well.”

Piggott admitted playing Darren Anslow’s Sevenoaks side in the club’s first ever Umbro Kent Senior Trophy Final would make him happy.

“I know it’s an old saying, but we won’t be looking any further than this weekend.  We’ve been struggling at the moment with injuries and suspensions.  We’ve been struggling to get a strong side out for weeks now. 

“I need to get two strong sides out on Saturday and Monday as our league game against Rusthall has been moved to the Monday.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve had a game on a Bank Holiday this season and up until last Monday we didn’t have one this Bank Holiday.  You tell the boys we haven’t got a game so they make plans, which we all do.  Because it’s so short notice we will struggle a little bit but at the end of the day it’s my job to get a good enough side out to compete against Rusthall on the Monday.

Looking ahead to next Monday’s home clash against Rusthall, Piggott added: “They beat us down at their place and we were poor and they deserved their win, so we have to put that record straight.

“After we’ve done our best on Saturday, we need to pick the bones out of that and hopefully not get any injuries or knocks and be at our best on the Monday as well.”

Both games over the Easter programme kick-off at 3:00pm.

Visit Hollands & Blair website: www.hollandsandblair.teamexpert.co.uk

Hollands & Blair  v  Cray Valley (Paper Mills)
Umbro Kent Senior Trophy Semi-Final
Easter Saturday 7^th April 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Star Meadow, Darland Avenue, Gillingham, Kent ME7 3AP