My job is to get players up for must-win derby dual with Cray, says Nott

Friday 12th March 2010

MAIDSTONE UNITED go into Saturday’s crunch Kent derby with Cray Wanderers at Homelands with more than local pride at stake, writes Mike Green.

With both sides dangerously close to the Ryman Premier relegation zone, victory for the Stones would come as welcome relief to new boss Peter Nott, who was very critical of his sides midweek home defeat to leaders Dartford.

“I was disappointed in both the result and the performance,” he admitted to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after the game.

“I thought we lacked passion, desire, commitment – we went a goal down early before we stemmed the flow and that was it!

“We’d got ourselves back into it – wed taken the heat out of the game and then we just sat back! We had a right old session with them at half time “it’s a Kent derby – you need to get out there and fight – they’ve lost three of their last six yet we just didn’t… well we didn’t create one real chance did we!

“I felt that they controlled the game and could have stepped their game up a lot if we’d have stepped our game up. I felt that they had another level to go to – they’ve had a comfortable game against us tonight, and I don’t like any of my teams laying down and accepting second best and we did tonight.”

With Cray not playing, their irrepressible management duo of Ian Jenkins and Joe Francis were amongst the 370 crowd at Homelands to see Lee Burns’ strike decode a very ordinary Kent derby – a fact that Nott couldn’t help but smile at.

He said: “If Ian and Joe were down here tonight and seen us play as badly a that they must be convinced that they’re going to get the points on Saturday.”

Continuing the Stones chief admitted the size of the 90 minutes that is heading Homelands way on Saturday afternoon. “It’s a massive game for both clubs on Saturday – we counted the walking wounded at training on Thursday – we’ve a big injury list now, which seems to be centred on the midfield area which doesn’t help us.”

Despite the torment that the manager must be feeling as he still awaits his second win in charge, Nott was still remarkably upbeat. “I’m still enjoying it despite the results,” he admitted. The boys last couple of performances have given us something to take heart from, but we told the boys that we needed to take something out of tonight’s game and sadly I don’t think that our players believed in themselves enough tonight, and now its my job to get them right up for the weekend and we must, we must win that game.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game, with Mike Green reporting

Visit Maidstone United’s website: www.maidstoneunited.co.uk

Maidstone United v Cray Wanderers

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 13th March 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Homelands Stadium, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ