Rook sets his sights higher
TONBRIDGE ANGELS goal-machine Carl Rook has praised his strike partner Ade Olorunda for his hat-trick against Dartford last night, writes Stephen McCartney.
Rook, a big-money signing from Horsham eleven months ago, took his tally up to fourteen for the season with his hat-trick in the Angels’ convincing 4-1 win over sorry Dartford.
The former Hastings United and Dover Athletic striker has now scored 32 goals in 35 starts for the Angels, but thanked Olorunda for his hard graft.
“He’s a handful, he takes a lot of the work load of myself and just puts himself about,” Rook told www.kentishfootball.co.uk last night.
“I was playing with little Jamie (Cade), obviously I done the brunt of the work and he’s picking up the pieces but now Ade can share that workload and Jamie’s playing well out wide.”
Angels boss, Tommy Warrilow said Rook wasn’t flavour of the month at Longmead Stadium earlier in the season, but fans are seeing the best of the striker now.
“Carl has had some unfair criticism down here,” said Warrilow. “He’s a completely different player to the lad (Jon Main) that left here. They kept trying to compare the two and I think Rookie showed tonight (against Dartford) what a handful he can be.
“That’s the best I’ve probably seen Carl play. I think he’s all round game, everything. He’s been like that the last few weeks, even at the start of the season. He wasn’t playing particularly well but he was no where near the worst player we had.
“Ask any defender, any manager, any team, they’d all have Carl Rook in their side.”
Following his early season form, Rook has increased his goalscoring target from 20 to 32.
“Usually I used to be 20 (goals) a season being a target man and that,” said Rook.
“I got 31 last year so about the same again would be nice. Obviously you would want to go one better so 32 I suppose.”
With the Angels sitting pretty in third place in the Ryman Premier League table - eight points behind leaders Dover Athletic who lost only their second league game of the season last night - Warrilow challenges his side to claim all three points when struggling Harrow Borough visit Longmead Stadium on Saturday.
A crowd of 703 were enthralled against the Darts and in a bid to increase crowds to 1,000 the club are giving families a special deal to watch Saturday’s game against a side that are in the bottom three.
Two adults and two children can watch the action for JUST £12. Value for money considering last night’s stunning showing and that the Angels have now scored a whopping 17 goals in their last 4 games.
“Our aim is to try and get out of the league, either via the play-off’s or straight away, but it’s not going to be easy,” said Warrilow.
“There’s no easy games and we’ve got another tough battle here against a Harrow Borough side (that have beaten Dartford and Margate this month).
“There’s always a banana skin around the corner in this league and Harrow Borough are one of them.
“Hopefully we’ll do the same second half performance for ninety minutes on Saturday and the main thing is to get three points.”
Meanwhile, two players that have recently been released have been snapped up by two Ryman League Division One South clubs.
Winger Kirk Watts and striker Luke Piscina have both signed for Croydon Athletic and Crowborough Athletic respectively.
Visit Tonbridge Angels’ website: www.tonbridgeangels.co.uk
Tonbridge Angels v Harrow Borough
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 22nd November 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Betterview Longmead Stadium, Darenth Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 3JF