The clubs very much laid down the marker for me this year and said we want you to finish in that mid-section, says Tunbridge Wells boss Jason Bourne

TUNBRIDGE WELLS manager Jason Bourne says hard work will get his home-town club into the midtable section.

The Wells were dumped out of the Kent Reliance Senior Trophy in the Second Round when they lost an entertaining game away to their league rivals Cray Valley, who progressed courtesy of Jamie Miller’s 26^th minute finish last Sunday.

Tunbridge Wells return to league action on Saturday, with a vital game away to Lordswood.

Richard Styles’ side are fourth-from-bottom in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, having bagged four wins, one draw and 13 defeats in their disappointing league campaign.

Tunbridge Wells, meanwhile, sit three places higher and arrive with a league playing record of four wins, three draws and six defeats.

Fisher are rooted to the foot of the table with 7 points from 18 games, while their rivals Beckenham Town join them in the relegation zone with 12 points from 17 games. Nine other clubs are looking over their shoulder, having collected between 12 and 17 points.

“Our bread and butter is the league,” said Bourne, who came off the bench to play in the centre of the park for the first time in his career after Tom Bryant was forced off with an ankle injury.

“We just need to be consistent.  I’m sure out of the top four or five everyone suffers with consistency issues.  It’s getting the best out of players.

“I don’t want to be the type of guy who chops and changes and throw a load in and throw a load out. I don’t really want to do that. We want to work with what we’ve got, to a point.

“The boys are working hard for me. Losing to Holmesdale (in the Macron Challenge Cup) was a bit of a blip, before that we beat Deal and Whitstable, two good wins when we really worked hard and that’s going to be the foundation of our season really. If we work hard and apply ourselves, we’ll do alright.

“The league’s our bread and butter. Lordswood is a tough place to go because it’s a tight pitch and they scrap and battle. We’re both in a group near the bottom, so it’s going to be a tough game.

“We’re massively a part of that group. We’re in a position where we’ve got two or three games in hand. I know it’s not worth anything, equally as much, as we’re a part of that group.  You win a couple of those or even one really you’re up in a different group, you’re up in the midtable group so that’s what we’re aiming for.

“We’re not worrying about anything behind us because if the boys work hard we’ll accumulate enough points to finish in the section of the league that I believe we’ll finish in.  It’s just about getting that consistency.

“I’m learning all the time, learning what I have from my players’ and the clubs very much laid down the marker for me this year and said we want you to finish in that mid-section so push hard as we can.  It’s personal pride for me, I want to finish as high as we can.”

Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewellsfc.com

Lordswood  v  Tunbridge Wells
Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 3^rd December 2016
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Martyn Grove, North Dane Way, Walderslade, Kent ME5 8YE