Twelve games to go, we've got to make it count, says Francis

JOE FRANCIS has challenged his Cray Wanderers side to win all of their last twelve games to clinch promotion this season, writes Stephen McCartney.

The assistant boss saw the Wands clinch all three points in their comfortable 2-0 win at Ashford Town last Saturday.

Goals inside the opening eighteen minutes from Leigh Bremner and Mark Willy has increased belief within the camp, ahead of Saturday’s must-win clash with Worthing at Hayes Lane.

The Rebels’ 21-match unbeaten run was ended by Sittingbourne last weekend, but the West Sussex side bounced back with a 1-0 home win over Burgess Hill Town last night - as all good sides do.

But eight points separate the top eight sides at the top of the table, and any club can walk off with the title at the end of the season.

Kingstonian (28 games/57 points) returned to the summit following their win last night, with Worthing (29/55), Cray Wanderers (30/54), Metropolitan Police (30/53) and Fleet Town (30/51), occupying the play-off places.

Merstham (29/51), Ashford Town (31/50) and Sittingbourne (28/49) cannot be ruled out either.

With the division so tight, Francis, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk following their comfortable win at Homelands Stadium, knows his side cannot afford to slip up.

“I think the maximum we can get, we’ve got 12 games left, so there’s another 36 points there, we’re on 54 points, so we can get 90 points, so that’s our aim,” said Francis.

“We’re a team that went on a 29 match unbeaten run last year and we are capable of putting runs together. We haven’t put a run together yet and now we’ve gone three wins on the trot, that’s a start.”

Francis - and boss Ian Jenkins - don’t mind what route they clinch promotion this season, but if they have to settle for the play-off’s then so be it.

“We’d that that (route via the play-off’s), but we want to win it,” said Francis.

“This is the business end to the season and this is where titles are won and lost in this period of the season.

“We’ve got everybody fit, we’ve got players that are turning up and they know they’ve got twelve ninety minute games.

“I mean, every game’s going to be tough, we’ve been saying that to the players. We’ve only got twelve ninety minute games left until the end of the season and we’ve got to make every single one of them count.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.craywands.co.uk

Cray Wanderers v Worthing
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 28^th February 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF