Kentish Football 
Norton Sports boss Ben Taylor aiming for top eight finish
Wednesday 04th August 2010
NORTON SPORTS boss Ben Taylor admits losing target man Andy Irvine for Saturday’s Safety Net Associates Kent League opener at Sevenoaks Town is a blow, writes Stephen McCartney.
When asked about his side’s preparation ahead of their trip to Greatness Park, Taylor told www.kentishfootball.co.uk that is was all going well until the final minutes of their last training session.
“It’s gone really well mate,” he said. “I’m well happy with it to be honest. We’ve played four or five games and been unbeaten in them, not that it means nothing, but it’s always a good confidence booster.
“The only disappointing thing about it so far was last night in training we lost our big man up front, Andy Irvine, for Saturday. He pulled his thigh so I’m really disappointed about that, but we’ve got Harry Goodger, who is another quality player, who can come in and obviously cover for him.
“It’s just a little bit disappointing really because we’ve worked hard around him in training. Just to pull his thigh, the last kick of the session is just a bit annoying really, but other than that mate, I’m quite confident.”
Sevenoaks go into the game with a new manager, Keith Levett, at the helm, but Taylor still expects a tough game at Greatness Park.
He said: “Not being funny, no matter who they’re under, every time I play them it’s always going to be a tough game.
“You know what you’re going to get, they’re a half decent football side and they battle hard, have got a decent midfielder, an oldish lad who plays in midfield, who is a decent player, so we’re just going there and all we’re concentrating on is our own game to be honest.
“We proved it a few times before, if we turn up and play the game that we can play, then we’re good enough in my eyes to beat anybody in that league.
“But at this moment what we haven’t proved is we’re not consistent enough so it depends on the day how we turn up.
“The boys have trained really hard this summer and in the friendlies so far so I can’t complain. We’ve put the ball down and played some decent football and won the games.
“Hopefully we can play the game I know we can play and get a result or something out of it.”
When asked about his aspirations for Norton’s third Kent League campaign, Taylor replied, “I’d tell you, like I told the East Kent Gazette - I want to come top eight! I’m sick coming eleventh, I’ve come eleventh two seasons in a row so I want to go three moves higher.
“If I can finish in the top eight, I think after previous seasons we’ve dropped points that we shouldn’t have dropped so there’s no reason why we could not finish top eight, so that’s what I’m hoping for.”
Visit Norton Sports’ website: www.webteams.co.uk/Home.aspx?team=nortonsportsfc
Sevenoaks Town v Norton Sports
Safety Net Associates Kent League
Saturday 7th August 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Greatness Park, Seal Road, Mill Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5AX
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd