Kentish Football 
Sittingbourne's finances are now stretched to almost breaking point
Wednesday 05th January 2011
SITTINGBOURNE boss Gary Abbott demands a positive reaction from his players when they play against Eastbourne Town at Bourne Park on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Kent side squandered an excellent chance to consolidate their position in the top-five in the Ryman League Division One South table, with an “embarrassing” 3-0 home defeat to Chipstead last night.
The Surrey side sealed a comfortable win, courtesy of three goals inside the opening 25 minutes, from Jason Goodchild, Ray Freeman and Jason Thompson.
Abbott described his side’s lacklustre display as “embarrassing.”
He added: “We hope that they turn up on Saturday! Obviously we’ll train Thursday, we hope they’ll turn up and all of them owe us a game.
“Ross Morley was the only one who even tried to give us anything and you can’t have one player because if you have eight or nine players out - I don’t care who you’re playing against - then you’re going to get beat!”
Abbott was shocked just how poorly his side played, following a spirited display during their 1-1 draw away to Merstham on New Years Day.
“It’s just annoying! We’ve come from Saturday, in the second half, the best football we’ve played this season. The football in the second half was unbelievable but we just couldn’t score and then we’ve come from there to here and we play like that!
“I can’t put my finger on it but I know these games do happen but we’ve got what we deserved and that was nothing!
“I just hope they turn up on Saturday! We need three points on Saturday!”
Sittingbourne lost out on the play-off’s last season and Abbott hopes history doesn’t repeat itself.
“Hopefully it’s a blip! We’ve been on a good run as well and the thing I’m annoyed is we don’t let goals in. We’re probably the third best defence in the league and we’ve let in three in 25 minutes,” he said.
“It was such a good chance for us to go three points clear in fifth spot.
“It seems like deja vu, like last year. We keep saying we should be getting in the play-off’s - this is going to be our best chance to do it. I think the top four are away (from us) so it’s just that fifth spot with five or six teams going to be playing for it, and we’ve sort of kicked ourselves in the teeth.
“The good thing is we’re still in there. We’re all level on points, we have to keep on winning and we can do is work our nuts off and see what happens at the end of the season.”
Last night’s game was the first home game at Bourne Park since Burgess Hill came away with the three points on 27 November.
The original game against Chipstead on 27 November was postponed due to a frozen pitch and the cash-strapped Kent club issued the original programme with an up-to-date four page insert for last night’s re-arranged game.
Club officials were disappointed with the turnout, especially considering it was the only game played in Kent last night.
They urge all stay-away fans to return in their droves on Saturday to ease the club’s cash-flow problems.
Club spokesman Peter Pitts told www.sittingbournefc.co.uk: “The last home game for the Brickies was almost seven weeks ago and as you might expect that huge gap, caused by the frozen conditions, has given the club a huge dent in their finances, couple that with the extremely poor gate of just 102 for this game then it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that finances are now stretched to almost breaking point, so we need supporters to do all they can to improve this situation so that the club can continue their push for a play-off place.”
Visit Sittingbourne’s website: www.sittingbournefc.co.uk
Sittingbourne v Eastbourne Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 8th January 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Bourne Park, Central Park Stadium, Eurolink, Church Road, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3SB
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd