With only twenty teams in the league, you want to start well, says VCD Athletic boss Keith McMahon

VCD ATHLETIC manager Keith McMahon says he wants to get the new campaign off to a winning start.

The Vickers kick-off their Bostik South East Division campaign with a home game against Lloyd Blackman’s Ramsgate on Saturday.

“With only twenty teams in the league, you want to start well,” said McMahon.

“I’m not saying we’re going to win it, but we want to have a go.”

The division contains a reduced number of 20 club’s and VCD Athletic will be contesting 24 Kent derbies in their 38 league outings this season.

“There’s going to be a lot of teams we know. There’s going to be a lot of good sides in that league, it’s going to be very tough, very tough, said McMahon.

“I’m looking forward to a good season ahead, it’s going to be difficult.

“There’s going to be a lot of battles, not everyone has got a pitch like ours. Not only now we’ve got a massive rivalry across the road at Phoenix, there’s still Thamesmead, Greenwich Borough, Cray Wanderers, now you’re adding in Sevenoaks, that’s just down the road and now you’re throwing in Whitstable who have come back in. You’ve got Faversham, Sittingbourne, Hythe, Ramsgate, they’re all just down the road and they’re all good sides.

“Any league is hard to win, yes, I think it is.  I don’t think we’re going to make a big thing of it.  I think we’re going to go along and stick to what we want to do and our game plan.  Sometimes you can maybe get torn up about everything else and we’re not going to do that this year.

“We’re going to have a go and if it doesn’t work out I’m sure I won’t be here at Christmas – as everyone keeps telling me on social media – but we’ve got a decent team spirit here and I think if you can look around the changing room and look at how hard we have worked off the pitch.

“We’ve worked so hard this summer, we’ve been down here every night. We’ve completely revamped the changing rooms, the pitch and around the ground. We’ve worked so hard and now we want to repay them on the pitch and I’m pretty sure we’re going to do our best.”

VCD Athletic finished in 17^th place in the Bostik South Division table last season, having picked up 52 points from their 46 games.  Ramsgate finished a place and a couple of points better off.

“Lloyd’s got a good side up there. He’s a good manager, he knows the league. They’re always good going forward.  They were young last year and the first game of the season is never easy,” said McMahon.

“You can win every pre-season game and have a poor start. We need to start well. We started poorly against Faversham last year and then we went on a bad run and then picked up some great results.

“I just want consistency and we’ve got to get up and running and I don’t really care as long as we get three points on that game and give ourselves seven days now to build.

“There’s no games coming thick and fast at you anymore.  I think it’s good for players, you can work a little bit more.”

VCD Athletic  v  Ramsgate
Bostik South East Division
Saturday 11 August 2018
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Oakwood, Old Road, Crayford, Kent DA1 0DN