We have to work with what we've got, says Corinthian boss Tony Sitford

CORINTHIAN boss Tony Sitford says his side are good enough to finish in the top five of the Kent Hurlimann Football League – but his players’ must show more commitment to the cause, writes Stephen McCartney.


The Gay Dawn Farm outfit suffered a humiliating 9-0 home defeat to Ryman League Division One South giants Maidstone United in the FA Cup Preliminary Round last Saturday, and they travel to newly-promoted side Cray Valley (Paper Mills) on Saturday.

“We’ll we’ve got bad news on that front,” said Sitford, 72, who will be without Lee Barnett, Lee Woodyard, Danny Nash and a couple of others at the weekend.

“We’ve gone one going to America, one going to Ibiza, one going to Scotland with work commitments and one having an operation next week.

“We were saying last week we had five away, and we’ve got them all back (against Maidstone United) and five away on Saturday. 

“What are we supposed to do?  We’re not allowed to sign players so what can we do? We’ve got to play with what we’ve got!”

When asked why he can’t bring new players in, Sitford explained the situation at the amateur club.

He said: “Because the club have got a policy the players that are here have got to play.  We don’t go round signing players so there’s not a lot we can do in all honesty.

“We’ve got players’ who want to come here but we can’t sign them so that’s that!  We’ve lost four from the reserves who are going to university so we’ve got to sign some players’ but it’s down to the chairman.  He’s the one that makes the decisions, not me!

“It’s all very well fetching up youngsters, at the end of the day they reach a level, are they good enough to play at that league?”

The highly-respected Sitford, however, says he will not quit following the club’s record FA Cup defeat last weekend.

He said: “Look, it’s easy for everybody to go ‘the manager should go, he should quit, he got beat, he should quit, the coach should quit’.

“At the end of the day we can only put out players’ that we’ve got, simple as A B C.  That’s the players’ we’ve got!  Could we get better players? Of course, we can get better players. We can’t and that’s it in a nutshell.  We have to work with what we’ve got.  We’ve got no complaints, we do what the club want.  We try to do what we’re asked to do.

“We’ve got some good players here, they’ll do alight in the Kent League.  We’ve got a team here that are good enough to finish in the top five that’s for sure.”

Cray Valley (Paper Mills)  v  Corinthian
Kent Hurliamann Football League
Saturday 10^th September 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Badgers Sports, Middle Park Avenue, Eltham, London SE9 5HT