There will be a reaction because I've told them in no uncertain terms what I expect, says Sitford

CORINTHIAN boss Tony Sitford will make several changes for their home FA Cup tie against Croydon on Saturday.



They opened their Kent Hurlimann Football League campaign with a good performance on Saturday, although they went down to a 2-1 defeat at home to Lordswood.

But Sitford, 73, heavily criticised his players following their woeful performance at Erith & Belvedere, when they were lucky to come away from Park View Road with a 4-2 defeat.

Andy Constable scored twice in the first half, as did summer signing Richmond Kissi from the penalty spot as the Deres raced into a 3-0 lead at the break. It should have been a lot more!

Carl Cornell added a fourth after only 67 seconds into the second half, before Sitford hauled off Marx Axel, Adam Marsh and James Hawkins after 53 minutes and Alfie May and a Ryan Johnson penalty inside the final fourteen minutes added some respectability to the scoreline, but Erith & Belvedere should have scored at least ten!

Sitford revealed he will make changes to his side to face Combined Counties League side Croydon in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round.

The Trams suffered a humiliation of their own when they crashed to an 8-0 defeat in Guernsey at the weekend and they play Dorking at Croydon Sports Arena tonight.

Sitford said: “I’ll play youngsters in preference to that.  With the exception of one player, the back five were absolutely abysmal!”

When asked after last night’s game how many players will face the axe on Saturday, Sitford replied, “I’ll be honest with you. I’m angry and I’ll quite comfortably will say five at this moment in time.  I’ll make five or six. I’m that angry!

“There will be a reaction from them because they’ve just been told in no uncertain terms what I expect and what I think!”

Sitford wants his players to end their losing streak, saying, “It’s important the players go out and play.  You look in the paper and see they’ve got beaten again, they must be a poor side.

“To be fair we’ve got three players missing, who will make a difference.  We’ve got Chris Kinnear missing.  We’ve got Lee Woodyard missing and Dan Bygraves broke his arm.

“We’re hoping to sign another goalkeeper, who can’t play Saturday. He’s got quite a lot of experience with Dagenham & Redbridge.

“On the of the best keepers in the league, Dan Bygraves, smashed his arm to bits so that’s set us back a bit, which is unfortunate.

“Jamie Billings is now getting better.  He’ll be playing in the reserves Saturday. He hasn’t played for eight months. He’s had groin trouble so he’ll be coming back into the fold.”

Sitford’s message for Saturday is simple.

He said: “We want to win! I don’t care if it’s 1-0 or 2-0.  We want to win!

“At the end of the day we’ve got to start from scratch to put the team back together.”

Sitford admitted last night’s performance was a contrast from their impressive pre-season performances.

He said: “You’ve got some players there who are very, very good players and you’ve seen them play.

“If you’ve seen us against Margate and Leatherhead and that you’d be going ‘what’s that all about?  You wouldn’t believe how we played against them and we come out here and we look at the pitch and we don’t go and play.”

Corinthian’s players are lucky that they are unpaid as Sitford revealed the punishment he handed out to underperforming players when he was the boss at Southern League outfit Gravesend & Northfleet.

“When I was at Gravesend we played in a game, I’ve forgotten who it was now, we were at home and we lost.  I don’t mind the loss.   I had six players who were doing what we were doing out there (against Erith & Belvedere).”

Sitford said to his players, “Don’t get changed, just wait for ten minutes to calm down.  Let’s come with me.  I got in my car and there’s a great big hill and I said ‘you’re going up there now, 25 minutes non-stop. 

“I don’t care if you lose but if you lose like that again it goes to 50 minutes - and I made them run up the hill.

“They were all getting paid so I had to do it.  They were all on contract so they had to do it.  We never lost another game.  We lost two games all year. We won the league and you speak to those players now, they’ll tell you the same thing.  It was the best thing that ever happened to them!”

Corinthian  v  Croydon
The FA Cup with Budweiser Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 11^th August 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Corinthian Sports Club, Gay Dawn Farm, Valley Road, Fawkham, Near Longfield, Kent DA3 8LY