Kentish Football

The Kent League title race is wide open, says Norton boss Ben Taylor

Wednesday 12th January 2011
NORTON SPORTS’ player-manager Ben Taylor says it’s important for team camaraderie to have as many local players at the club, writes Stephen McCartney.


The club, based in Sittingbourne, are taking a keen interest in events close by at Bourne Park, where their more illustrious neighbours confirmed there’s not enough money to pay players or management due to debts around £20,000.

When asked how Norton Sports keep going, with the news that Sittingbourne’s finances are at “crisis point,” Taylor replied, “Someone asked me that question today.  One of my mates said ‘we’ll see what Sittingbourne are made off now.’

“I’ve got a lot of time for Sittingbourne, Andy (Spice, the chairman) has always been good to me.  I don’t want nothing bad happening to them and I hope they stay strong, but this is when you ain’t got local boys in the team and they play for money, you see what they are made off.

“If they keep hold of their players, then fair play to them, you have to take your hat off to them.

“For Norton, because we’re all local boys that have been there and stuck together, they’ve stayed loyal to me and I’ve stayed loyal to them.

“The chairman, Kevin James, who started it all, has been brilliant, now it’s Ronnie Welling (who is the new chairman) and the players have always been loyal.

“We’re all together as mates and that’s the good thing about having all local boys because we all go out and have a beer together or whatever together and do a lot of things together so when you have players come from all different areas and all over the place for money it could be hard for them to keep hold of them.

“Hopefully they can stick at it and keep going, but it will be interesting to see what happens next year.”

Norton Sports’ big-night at former landlords Herne Bay in the first-leg of the Kent League Cup Quarter-Final was put on hold this morning, due to a waterlogged pitch at Winch’s Field.

“I was well up for it, I was a bit gutted but to be honest when I got up this morning and went outdoors to go to work I knew it would be off,” said a disappointed Taylor.

“We’re training tonight at nine o’clock.  All the boys thought they would have the night off but I’ve got them in training.  You have to do something.  You’ve got to keep going.”

Norton Sports are scheduled to welcome Scott Porter’s Hythe Town in the second round of the Kent Senior Trophy on Saturday (1:30pm).

“They’re a big strong side and they will be looking to turn us over. But at Woodstock we’ll give them a run for their money, which I’m confident we will,” warned Taylor.

“When we played at their ground, I know it’s a cup game, we had 10 men for about 70 minutes of the game and they beat us 4-2.  It could have quite easily been 5-4 to us to be honest.”

Hythe arrive in fourth place in the Kent League table, with 23 points from 12 games - 9 points behind leaders Herne Bay but with three games in hand.

Norton Sports, meanwhile, are sitting in seventh place, with 18 points from 13 games - 14 points behind Simon Halsey’s league leaders.

“We’re well happy with it to be honest,” Taylor said about his side’s lofty league position.  “Hopefully we’ll be able to stay there or progress and go a bit higher.  We can definitely jump up one or two positions.

“We just have to go on a run to be honest.  It’s just frustrating that all our games are being called off.  I know it’s the same for everyone else, but I can only speak on behalf of Norton.  We’re at our best when we have a run of games to be honest but at the moment it’s stop start, stop start.

“I’m well happy with what we’re doing at the moment so we’ll just have to keep going.  Hopefully I will be back on Saturday as I had a slight hamstring pull from last week at Woodstock and hopefully Jon Neal will be back for Saturday.”

Taylor admitted that the Kent League title race is “wide open.”

He said: “We’re only 14 points behind Herne Bay, the leaders, that’s never heard off really. You would think we’d be a few more points behind the leaders, but it’s wide open.  

“Everyone’s beatable in this league. We tend to push the top sides really hard and have pretty much more of a chance to get points off them and we struggle against the lower sides, but that’s the difference between consistency.  Until we correct that we’re going to be where we are at the moment but we have the potential and the ability to step up, I think.”

The Sittingbourne resident added: “At Woodstock, they’re just waiting for the grant for the floodlights.  All the fencing is up as you know along the back so that’s alright, they’ve got to put the stand up but they are pushing really hard.  They want it as much as I do.  

“It will happen, they will get up there because that’s what they want.  All the time they’ve got a team like they have got now and Woodstock, where they are in the league behind, and they’re not paying no players, they’ve got every chance to get what they want.

“All we have to do is maintain the squad and the players and stay in this league and push on as well as we can do.

“At the moment there’s not many teams in our position.  We’re seventh and there’s not many managers, I’d like to see the manager who hasn’t got any money, put a team in the Kent League and be sitting in seventh.”


Norton Sports  v  Hythe Town
Kent Senior Trophy Second Round
Saturday 15th January 2011
Kick Off 1:30pm
At Woodstock Park, Sittingbourne ME9 8AG








 

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