We'll be doing our homework on Ringmer, says Erith Town assistant manager Ray Powell

ERITH TOWN player-assistant manager Ray Powell says he will watch their FA Cup opponents Ringmer play tonight.


 

The Dockers climbed to the top of the Kent Hurlimann Football League table following their hard-fought 1-0 win over ten-man Fisher last night.

Danny Taylor picked up his second yellow card for bringing down Harry Montgomery inside the box and 31-year-old substitute Marcos Perona converted the 76^th minute penalty to win it.

Erith Town begin their FA Cup campaign with a home game against Ringmer on Saturday.

Ringmer opened their Sussex County League Division One (top-flight) campaign with a 1-0 home win over St Francis Rangers at the weekend, courtesy of a goal from Tony Reid.

Powell says he and manager Tony Russell will travel down to Ringmer to watch their game against Crowborough Athletic – who lost their first game 6-1 at Horsham YMCA – tonight.

Powell, 32, said: “We will be doing our homework. We will be going to watch them tonight.  Me and Tony are going to sit in the stand and we’ll do our homework and see where it takes us.”

The Dockers will collect £1,000 in prize money if they get through the Extra Preliminary Round tie at Erith Stadium.

Reflecting on his best FA Cup achievements, Powell said: “Bristol Rovers – First Round of the FA Cup when I played for Welling as a youngster, aged seventeen. There were five and a half thousand there, decent.

“I just have to bring my experience to the players.

“Everyone loves a Cup run but at the end of the day we’ll do our best.  It’s all we can do.”

Sources claim that Erith Town have one of the highest budgets in the Kent League this season.

Powell said: “It would be lovely to have a Cup run, but nothing changes.  No wage bill hike shall we say, but we know what we’ve got for the season.  We know where we are. If you have a Cup run, lovely, it helps the club out, helps the chairman out.”

Powell watched last night’s game alongside Russell in the technical area, but he really wanted to be out on the Champion Hill pitch, but two games in three days prevented that happening.

“You just want to be out there all the time,” he said.  “I want to be out there because I want to kick every ball.  I’m that sort of player. You’ve got to adjust to management, keep your head a bit. Everybody knows I’m a bit of a feisty player. It’s a learning curve for me this year.”

Powell, who played for Erith Town during the second part of the season last term, made a surprise return to the Dulwich Hamlet team at the end of last season.

He scored two goals that left Folkestone Invicta heartbroken in the Ryman League Division One South play-off semi-final, a result that sent Gary Rose’s side to the play-off final for the second successive season.

Powell said: “Gavin Rose and me have always been good mates. I went away because of work commitments and I said to him I’m going to be out playing at Erith Town from Christmas to help Tony Russell out.

“Gavin asked me how fit I was at the end of the season and I said ‘I’m alright, for the bench’, and he decided to have a gamble on me. I got two goals for him. Pity we lost in the final.”

Powell says his vast-experience, which has seen him become a fans’ favourite at Tonbridge Angels with his whole-hearted displays, will come in useful at Erith Town.

He said: “Tony’s asked me to be his assistant and we’ve taken it from there. I prefer playing obviously because I’ve played for 15 years’, so my experience will tell for some of these players.  I’m hoping to bring my experience to these young players and you can see Tony’s got them to play football.”

Visit Erith Town’s website: www.erithtown.com  

Erith Town  v  Ringmer
The FA Cup (with Budweiser) Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 11^th August 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Erith Stadium, Avenue Road, Erith, Kent DA8 3AJ

Article published: 14:30 – Tuesday 7 August 2012