There should be play-offs in this league, says table-topping Sevenoaks Town boss Micky Collins

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Micky Collins is delighted that his club play on a 3G pitch.

The club have been transformed since they decided to install an artificial surface at their Greatness Park ground and they are currently two points clear at the top of the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division and are the favourites to win promotion into the Bostik South Division.

When asked why people don’t appreciate the benefits of 3G, Collins said: “Because it’s out the norm, it’s not the natural thing. Anything that’s not normal or not natural people go against.

“You come down and play on that pitch it’s a decent pitch, it is good. It does roll like a grass pitch.  It’s difficult in the summer sometimes when it’s hot and it’s a bit different because it’s a slightly different bounce but that’s a slightly different construction to a lot of 3G pitches because it’s a longer pile with more rubber in it, you get more of a grass feel to it than some of the shorter pile ones.”

Sevenoaks Town were able to play their home game against Lordswood last Tuesday despite it being a frosty night and Byron Walker’s hat-trick sealed a 3-0 win.

Crowborough Athletic closed the gap to a couple of points following their 4-0 win at Lordswood yesterday because Sevenoaks were without a game.

The Oaks lead the way with 38 points on the board from 15 games and they do have a couple of games in hand on Sean Muggeridge’s side.

The Southern Counties East Football League must follow in the footsteps of the Isthmian League, as their clubs re-arrange postponed fixtures within six-weeks, while the Southern Counties East Football League wait to play re-arranged games in March and April, which is unfair on players to cram in so many games in a short space of time.

Collins said: “It’s good at the moment, there’s a long way to go. If we make mistakes and we slip up and things go wrong you’ll soon feel pressure but the pressure’s not really on us because we’ve got the points on the board.

“Everyone’s chasing us and want to knock us off the top.  There’s a lot of teams fighting for second place, because at the moment if you get the right points per game you can go up in second place, so teams will be aware of that, even though they might think at the moment they’ve got to topple us off, they’ll still be aware if they beat us and finish at least in a decent second place, they’ll go up as well, which is good. It’s how it should be every year in my opinion.

“There should be play-offs in this league. If someone runs way with it early, teams then pull money and there’s no budgets and then straight away it becomes a disappointing league and I think that needs to be there every year, the same with relegation. I think it needs to be a part of it and you’ve got the top 10 teams at the end of the season still got a chance with play-offs. It’s exciting and it will keep people coming through the door to watch because club’s need revenue.”

Sevenoaks Town are next in action on Saturday 23 December when Bearsted visit Greatness Park.

Kevin Stevens’ side defeated struggling Tunbridge Wells by a single goal yesterday and they sit in seventh-place in the table with 31 points from 21 games.

“We’ve got to turn up and be positive and try and get a result,” said Collins.

“It’s going to be a tough game, they all are. It’s a tough league every year. Most teams can beat most teams.  It’s the way it goes when you put yourselves in that position you have got to finish it off. We’ve put ourselves in that position, there’s a long way to go but we’ve just got to keep ticking them off.”

Visit Sevenoaks Town’s website: www.sevenoakstownfc.co.uk

Sevenoaks Town v  Bearsted
Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 23^rd December 2017
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX