There's still a lot more work to do - Lovell

Sunday 28th March 2010

STEVE LOVELL says it’s a case of dog-eat-dog when his Ashford Town side lock horns with Whitstable Town at Homelands Stadium on Monday night in a must-win six-pointer just above the relegation zone, writes Stephen McCartney.

Ashford have clawed themselves off the foot of the Ryman League Division One South table in recent weeks, having picked up 11 points from the 21 available in what has been a congested March for Lovell’s men.

Now fourth-from-bottom in the table, Ashford welcome a Whitstable Town side that are only two points - and one place - behind them and will be desperate to come away with all three points to leapfrog over Ashford in the table and improve their very own survival ambitions.

Eastbourne Town and Walton Casuals occupy the two relegation places - but Monday night’s derby showdown at Homelands Stadium doesn’t come any bigger.

“Tomorrow will be a tough game as they’re fighting for their lives as well,” Lovell told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“Even though it’s a six-pointer, we’ve got to go out and give it our best shot.”

Ashford claimed their tenth draw of the season (Whitstable have drawn only a couple of games) yesterday when they came away from Godalming Town with a creditable 1-1 draw, courtesy of Mitchell Sherwood’s equaliser.

“We played very well,” said Lovell. “We should have won the game really. We played all the football, created chances and we got a late equaliser.

“But there was only one team in it (in the second half) and it was a very good performance.”

Lovell is pleased that his squad are hitting form at the right time.

“It’s a lot healthier now then it was six weeks ago when we were bottom by quite a few points,” said the Welshman.

“We’ve had a decent run and we’ve had a few wins, a few draws and picked up a few points.

“It’s a lot healthier but there’s still a lot of work to be done, a lot of games to be played over a short space of time. We have to make sure we’ve got enough players for the fixtures as it’s so easy to pick up injuries with so many games in a short time.”

Losing one - or both - Kent club’s out of the Ryman League would be disastrous, especially financially, but Lovell is not looking to do Whitstable any favours.

“We’re not thinking about that, we’re just worrying about ourselves - so are Whitstable,” said Lovell.

“We’re not worried about anyone else. We’ll be out there - same as Whitstable - giving it our best.

“Everybody will know the importance of the game, but it’s a game both of us want to win, but you can’t predict anything, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the game, so as long as the 11 players I put out there perform then we should be alright.”

Easter is always a busy time during the football calendar, but Ashford face Worthing (Wednesday) and Leatherhead (Saturday) at Homelands Stadium, before a trip to Ramsgate on Easter Monday, before ending their campaign with four out of five home games.

“You’ve got to take one game at a time because their coming thick and fast,” said Lovell.

“I don’t know my team from tomorrow night, what my team will be Wednesday or Saturday. We’ve got to take each game as it comes and try and pick up as many points as we can. The more points we pick up this week will make the last remaining games we have a lot easier.”

Visit Ashford Town’s website: www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering the game, with Mike Green reporting

Ashford Town v Whitstable Town

Ryman League Division One South

Monday 28th March 2010

Kick Off 7:45pm

At Homelands Stadium, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ