We don't want to be looking over our shoulder, says Sittingbourne boss Joe Dowley

SITTINGBOURNE manager Joe Dowley says his side are too good to be worrying about looking over their shoulders at the teams who are struggling at the wrong end of the table.
The Brickies stalwart pulled off a tactical masterstroke as his side pulled off a shock 2-0 win over second-placed Whitehawk at Bourne Park last weekend, courtesy of striker from lone striker Joe Nwoko and player-coach Bryan Glover.

Sittingbourne are now in fourteenth place in the Ryman League Division One South table with 27 points from 24 games and are twelve points clear of the relegation zone.

Dowley, 28, said: “When you haven’t won a game in seven you do start looking over your shoulder but I think we’re too good.  We’ve got good players, good young players so I think we’re too good to start worrying about things like that (relegation).

“We want to be looking forward and start climbing the league.  I said to the players the worst thing is in January and February time when you have nothing to play for.  You want to push on as high as we can.”

They travel to sixteenth-placed side Walton Casuals on Saturday, before welcoming injury-hit Kent rivals Whitstable Town to Bourne Park on 21 January.

Dowley added: “We’ve got two games, which will set us up, Walton Casuals and Whitstable.  Two good games we’ll be looking for maximum points in.

“They’re teams around us who we should be looking to take points off and if we play like anything we did against Whitehawk I don’t think we’ll have a problem.  If we stop doing the things we did on Saturday, then we’ll have a problem.

“We don’t want to be looking over our shoulder.  It’s the worst thing we want to be doing.  I want to win a few more games in the next few weeks.”

Goalscoring has been a problem for Sittingbourne as before last week’s win over Whitehawk they had scored only three goals in their seven-match winless run.

However, prolific goalscorers don’t come cheap and Dowley said: “Every team needs a centre forward who’s going to score 20-30 goals, but we haven’t had that.  Every team wants one of them, I haven’t got one, so we’ll have to look elsewhere.

“Joe Nwoko has a couple now (in three games) so you never know – he may go on a little run now, but as long as we score the goals to win us games, I’m not too fussed who gets them!”

Visit Sittingbourne’s website: www.sittingbournefc.co.uk  

Walton Casuals  v  Sittingbourne
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 14^th January 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Waterside Stadium, Waterside Drive, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 2JP