We’ve started off rubbish, it’s not been good enough and now it’s up to us to put it right, vows Sevenoaks Town boss Micky Collins

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Micky Collins says he regrets not watching any Bostik League football last season.

The Oaks clinched the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division title last season and slumped to the foot of the Bostik South East Division last night after losing the basement battle at Three Bridges 2-0.

Connor French tucked home a penalty in the 37^th minute after Jack Miles tripped winger Alex Laing inside the box and a goalkeeping blunder from Ben Bridle-Card, spilling Mason Doughty’s free-kick which allowed substitute striker Trevor McCreadie to tap in his first goal of the season just four minutes into the second half gave Martin Dynan's side a deserved win.

Collins questioned his players’ desire last night as they struggled to come to terms with a Tuesday night in Sussex in the Bostik League, watched by a crowd of just 79.

Collins promised to bring in new players following his side’s poor performance in Crawley and his side’s start is bitterly disappointing and being at the bottom of the table is a new experience for a man who won league titles with Erith & Belvedere and his current club.

“We’ll have to, that’s something we’re working now and working on all the time but it doesn’t happen overnight,” said Collins.  

“You want to get the right people so it’s something we’ll address and look at it over the next week or so and then we’ll change it and freshen it up and we’ll give it another go.”

Sevenoaks Town claimed their first point of the season last Saturday, throwing away a 2-0 lead to be held at home by fellow newly-promoted side Haywards Heath Town, but another newly-promoted side, Three Bridges made Sevenoaks look poor.

“Listen, there’s a long way to go, that’s the only good thing about this. We’ve started off rubbish, it’s not been good enough and now it’s up to us to put it right,” insisted Collins.

“Once confidence goes it’s difficult. It’s difficult to build it up. We’ve just got to work hard. We’ve got to work hard as a management team and the players have got to work harder on the pitch, simple as that.”

VCD Athletic are in the top four in the division with four wins from their opening five games and their manager Keith McMahon watched last night’s game for the first 75 minutes.

“I said this the other day, we won the league, not comfortably but it was always going to happen,” said Collins.

“Probably because I’ve been away from this league a long time so I wish probably halfway through last season when we thought there was a possibility (of winning promotion) that we’d spent more time watching this league that we actually anticipated what was coming more because we didn’t.

“We didn’t have a chance last year, you’re concentrating on winning a league title so we haven’t done that and now you’re watching it and now you’re learning how things are done and players that are in it.

“It’s a tough ask now but it’s something that we have to do. There’s no point hiding from it. We’ve just got to go out and graft and sometimes as a manger you’ve got to go and earn your corn and now I’ve got to do that so that’s fine, I’m not shirking responsibility.

“I’ve enjoyed every moment of it so far and we’re still at the bottom. It’s new to me, which is a good thing, it’s a challenge and something we got to do and deal with it.”

Collins demands a positive reaction from his struggling team in Crayford on Saturday.

“Tough! It’s not an easy game. It’s proved that last night, two sides at the bottom, not had the greatest of starts to the season and as I say footballing wise are Three Bridges a mile ahead of us? I don’t think so. 

“I think there’s a lot of teams that are very similar. Even Saturday with Haywards Heath, but we’re 2-0 up and coasting and we threw it away!

“These are the margins we work on. You get away with it in the SCEFL, you don’t get away with it in this league.  We’ve been made aware of that very quickly and it’s up to us to deal with it. Don’t shirk our responsibilities, stick your chest out and actually work harder.

“We’ll come in and train on Thursday night and we’ll work at it. Hopefully we’ve got news on a couple of players coming back and then we’ll formulate something for Saturday, go and have a go and see if we can get a reaction.

“We need a reaction, we can’t keep saying we were unlucky there and we could’ve done this. We need to knuckle down and we need to work harder and the rest of it will come and that’s something we’re not doing.”

“It will be a tough game. Keith will watch it and he’ll come away probably thinking he’s got an easy game on Saturday but Keith is not like that, he’s professional, so he’ll look at it and think they’ve had an off night and they might come out Saturday so I’ve got to be prepared.

“He’s a good friend of mine and he’ll pay us the respect that we deserve and visa-versa. We’re due a win sometime. It just wasn’t here, maybe it will be Saturday, if it’s not Saturday, maybe it’s the week after?

“What we’ve not got to do is bury our head in the sand. We’ve actually got to look at what the problem is and try to address it and move forward.”

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

VCD Athletic  v  Sevenoaks Town
Bostik South East Division
Saturday 22 September 2018
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Oakwood, Old Road, Crayford, Kent DA1 4DN