We've got to get back to doing what we do well, says Tonbridge Angels head coach Justin Luchford

TONBRIDGE ANGELS head coach Justin Luchford says his side must retain their standards when they host struggling Farnborough on Saturday.

 

The Angels climbed from eighth-place to third in the Ryman Premier League table after Luke Blewden returned to his former club to score the only goal of the game to beat struggling and managerless Lewes 1-0 on Wednesday night.

Mitchell Pinnock, who made his third debut for the club, got through 69 minutes, having returned to the club while on a month’s loan from Vanarama National League South side Maidstone United, while former Margate midfielder, Anthony Riviere, a free-agent, made his debut.

Steve McKimm’s side have notched 23 points from their 11 league outings and are unbeaten on the road in six league games and have kept five clean sheets, conceding just one goal on their travels.

Farnborough arrive at Longmead Stadium sitting in the bottom four on six points from their seven league outings.

Reflecting on the club’s start to the campaign, Luchford said: “Decent return but for us, from the gaffer’s perspective and for me and the rest of the staff, we have to make sure we don’t put that performance in.

“Lucky is not the right word, we weren’t lucky because we worked hard for the win but if we perform like that every week we’re going to have a problem because certain sides will be better.

“We’ve got Farnborough on Saturday, they’ve beaten Bognor so they’ll be on the up. They’ve been bitty again, like Lewes.  They’ve just beaten Bognor so they’re no fools and we’ve got to raise our game and get back to doing what we do best on Saturday at home.  If we can do that and we can get three points then we can look back on Wednesday night and go workmanlike performance, did the job and on Saturday we get back to doing what we do well.”

Grinding out wins when not necessarily playing well bodes well for a team that potentially can go on and win the league title at the end of the season.

Luchford agreed, saying: “I said to the gaffer, I said to the boys at Brentwood when we went there on a Tuesday night, you win midweek games away from home, you put yourselves in good positions but you do well Wednesday night and get the result if means nothing if you go and lose on Saturday.  You’ve got to back it up and that’s going to be the main aim now with another win or at least a positive result.

“We’re struggling a bit player wise, fitness wise. Tom Parkinson may be back in the frame, we don’t know. Tommy Witnell might be back in the frame and obviously we’re waiting for Tom Phipp’s scan (on his injured knee) so we’ve got players to come back but to be fair to them we dug in and got the result.”

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Tonbridge Angels  v  Farnborough
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 3^rd October 2015
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Longmead Stadium, Darenth Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 3JW