We have to make sure we stay in this league, says Blade

Friday 16th April 2010

CRAY WANDERERS can surely secure their Ryman Premier League status with a victory over Carshalton Athletic tomorrow - much to the delight of assistant Paul Blade, writes Stephen McCartney.

Manager Ian Jenkins invited www.kentishfootball.co.uk to interview Blade on the eve of their trip to Colston Avenue to reflect on the club’s first campaign in the Ryman Premier League.

Currently in fourteenth place - with 14 wins and 7 draws from their 38 games - the Wands are destined to secure their safety with a win over a Carshalton Athletic side that are three places lower and are only one point clear of the drop zone.

“We have learnt a lot this year, but at the same time we haven’t been that far away from being in the play-off’s as well,” said Erith resident Blade.

Chairman Mr Gary Hillman wanted the club to finish at least one place above the relegation zone, but the management team were a little more ambitious as the long-serving Jenkins said last summer that he wanted his side to finish in the play-off’s in their first season at this level - something that Essex side Aveley are on course to do.

“Our expectations were we wanted to get into the play-off’s,” said Blade. “We’re not here to consolidate and just keep our noses above water. We want to go on. Seeing Dartford and Dover going from league-to-league, we wanted to copy them and emulate that.

“It’s been a learning curve. We’ve not been blessed with a fit squad. We’ve had a lot of injuries but that’s not an excuse.

“We’ll take on board what we’ve learnt this season. We know what we need to do to improve and we’ll prepare to get a win on Saturday to secure our status for the Ryman Premier is intact for next season and then push on for next season and see where we go from there.”

Looking ahead to the game away to Carshalton Athletic tomorrow, Blade said: “When thy say a six-pointer, it definitely is that. They were beaten by Hendon last night, who are wrapped around the same sort of position, so that was a big win for them and that was a big loss for Carshalton.

“We’ve got a massive say now on possibly who could go down. It’s a massive game for us on Saturday so we will be up for it, as much as they probably will be.

“They’re at home but we’ve had our best results away from home this season so we take a positive out of that so we’ll go there confident that we can get a result.”

Cray Wanderers’ largest win of the season was 4-1 away to Sutton United on Easter Monday - and Blade felt the home side showed the Wands a lack of respect.

“Thy were surprised with us going to them a couple of weeks ago and getting the result like we did,” recalled the former Thamesmead Town manager.

“They took us lightly. Their players were talking about their Saturday night out, they went and watched the David Hay fight and clubbing it and everything else.

“At this level you can’t afford to do that with the time and space before the next game. They took us lightly, I think, and got egg on their faces!

“We deserved our win. It wasn’t luck! We deserved our win fully and they knew it as well.”

Sutton United have leapfrogged over their neighbours Kingstonian into second place and arrive at Hayes Lane on Tuesday night, before the Wands travel to Harrow Borough just 48 hours later before ending their campaign at home to Horsham on 24 April.

“Sutton will be coming to us with maybe a slightly different attitude than what they had in the last game so we have to be more prepared,” warned Blade.

“We’ve got no expectations, but that’s Tuesday. Our main focus will be into Saturday, which is more important than Tuesday. Sutton are second in the league, they’re in the play-off’s, whatever they do, good luck to them but the Carshalton and Harrow games are more important.”

Blade added: “It would be nice to do the double over Sutton. We’ve done the double over a few teams this season.”

The management trio (Jenkins, Blade and Joe Francis) will sit down in the next few weeks to start planning for next season.

And when asked what is on their shopping list, Blade replied, “Well, a little bit more depth in the squad more than anything else.

“If you look at the starting eleven, it’s as good as any team in this league, but sometimes you need more depth within the squad.

“When you’ve lost the players like what we’ve had - Ross Lover is five or six weeks, Jamie Wood and Tommy Tyne are out for the rest of the season. We lost Tony Kessell back to Dartford. Tyrone Sterling left (for Hastings United) at some part of the season.

“If you look at the players that we’ve lost, we’ve lacked that (bigger) squad.

“We’ve done well!” he added. “I think a few people felt we would struggle with the start that we had but we had belief in the players that we’ve got.

“We know where we need to strengthen and we’ll address that but first and foremost we just have to make sure we stay in this league and that will start on Saturday with three points - which may be enough.”

Blade celebrates his 44th birthday in a couple of weeks time and staying up would be the icing on the cake.

“I’d take that all day long,” he said. “There’s no luck about it. We deserve to stay in this league. We’re good enough to stay in this league. Hopefully we can look forward to another hard fought season in the Ryman Premier League next season.”

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

Carshalton Athletic v Cray Wanderers

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 17th April 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

At War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Avenue, Carshalton SM5 2PN