My intention is to bring the youth through, says Sevenoaks Town boss Simon Jones

SEVENOAKS TOWN boss Simon Jones says he will blood local home-grown players next season.

The Greatness Park outfit are rooted the foot of the Kent Hurlimann Football League table, having collected three wins and a draw from their 27 league games and have gone countless players.

They suffered a humiliating 6-0 home defeat to neighbours Tunbridge Wells on Monday night and Jones wants to follow Martin Larkin’s lead by signing a majority of his squad that live in their own town.

That formula has certainly worked because the Culverden Stadium outfit are planning to play big-spending Spennymoor Town in The FA Carlsberg Vase Final at Wembley Stadium on 4 May.

Building a team, however, takes time and Jones revealed he has players in the youth ranks that can progress into the first team.

Sevenoaks Town, like Tunbridge Wells, do NOT pay their players and Jones knows managers have to be given time to stamp their authority on a club.  Sevenoaks Town have changed their managers every single season for the past four years and this does not breed stability.

Jones said: “We’re trying to do our job the best we possibly can and we’ll have a look at it.

“I have a group of excellent under 16 players at this club and I’ve been manager of that under 16 team for five or six years.

“We’ve had one boy coming through the ranks and he’s progressed into a professional club now and I’m not going to embarrass the kid by saying where and what because I don’t think that’s right.

“I have another under 16 that came in and played last Monday and he was potentially one of the best players on the pitch.

“I had another under 16 kid who came to the game on Tuesday and he’ll be an excellent addition.

“I think if this club is going to have any sort of long-term future, it actually needs to start engaging more with the local community and bring youth through.

“If the club wants me to carry on it’s certainly my intention to do that and bring the youth through and give this club a bit more of a local identity again, which is severely lacking.”

There is a danger however, that playing youngsters all together can do more harm than good, as was the case when Lordswood suffered a 9-2 defeat after playing a young side at title-chasing VCD Athletic last night.

Jones added: “The point was this year we’ve got boys now who have been playing for the club for 4-5 years at youth level and are starting to pull the shirt on.

“It’s going to be nice to see a lot of Paul (Lansdale’s) guys and Micky (Hazard’s) guys making the step up as well but they’re so heavily involved in their league campaign so it’s difficult for them to get involved as much as they’d like.

“The long-term future has to be about these guys coming through.  That’s what we’ve always said. At the minute the guys we’re playing here have an affinity with the club before.  You look at (current coaches) Anthony Ferguson, who was coach last year. Darrell (Queeley) was a coach with me and was managing the reserves and all the rest of it and he’s got an affinity with the club. 

“Dwayne Morris, Chris Walker, Alfred Koroma and Billy Simpson were at the club historically and the guys that we’ve brought in like Christian Howell and Tommy Whealan, they are good players that we want to build the team around and their local.

“The goalkeeper (Calum Keswick) who came on in the second half is the goalkeeper for the Sevenoaks Town youth team so the grass roots of what we’re trying to do is there.

“It’s we’re just playing catch up in the league to make sure we compete because you have to remember the club was left in a bit of a strange position in the summer and we’ve always been playing catch up.  We’ve had a couple of false dawns and then it’s just shifted away.

“To be honest I’ve made a few too many mistakes and taken gambles on players and they’ve gone onwards and upwards.

“We do what we can do with this club.  The future is get to as many of the local boys here as possible. It’s the only way it’s going to be sustainable.”

Jones said he will pick up his players at Thursday night’s training session, ahead of their home game against Erith Town on Saturday.

The Dockers lie in third-place in the Kent League table, eleven points adrift of leaders Erith & Belvedere and Mark Tompkins is their third manager this season.

“We’ll get the boys lifted,” said Jones.  “We’ll get the boys in training on Thursday and we’ll go through some pretty basic simple structures for them and we’ll go from there.

“We’ve been beaten by some better teams. We’ve won some games. It’s now a case now of getting ourselves focused again.”

Meanwhile, Greatness Park stages the Kent Women’s Cup Final between holders Gillingham and Charlton Athletic tonight.

Visit Sevenoaks Town’s website: www.sevenoakstownfc.org  

Sevenoaks Town  v  Erith Town
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Saturday 13^th April 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BU