We'll be quite happy with a top-half finish, says Corinthian boss Tony Sitford

CORINTHIAN manager Tony Sitford says he will be quite happy with a top-eight finish at the end of the season, writes Stephen McCartney.


The Gay Dawn Farm outfit are presently in ninth place in the Kent Hurlimann Football League table with 17 points from 12 games.

They were held to a 2-2 draw by Erith & Belvedere at the weekend and reflecting on the draw against Micky Collins side, Sitford said: “It was a very good game. They’re not a bad side, they’re a good side.  It was a very good game.  We were 2-1 up with 8-9 minutes to go, fortuitously. 

“They had a penalty claim, which I would have been very upset if I hadn’t got.  It was a definite penalty, you can’t argue about that!

“What pleased me with my players was the fact that they really worked their buts’ off.  They worked very, very hard, played some very good football and so did they!

“To be fair, it was a very good game of football. They’re a very good side, nice people.“

Sitford takes his side to VCD Athletic, for a rare midweek Kent League fixture, on Tuesday night.

“Well, the stories I’ve had about VCD are they’re very industrious, very good footballing side, like to play football so it should be a very good game of football,” said Sitford.

“To be honest we try to play football, they play football, so it’s got an ingredients of a very good game of football.”

Sitford explained his current situation with regards to team personnel.

He said:  “To be fair, at the moment, we’re in transition.  We’re just coming back and things are beginning to go well.  We’re getting players back.  Things are looking a lot better for us.  After the third game of the season we haven’t been able to filed the same side, not just one player, it’s been three or four players at a time.  We’ve just had three players’ missing in the last fortnight.

“Tomorrow evening we’re back down to two (unavailable) players’ from the first team, the fifteen available, but we have been down to as far as eleven.

“We’ve got one or two players who have to go abroad.  Chris Kinnear had to go abroad with his firm.  You can’t stop that.  They’ve got to go and things like that have been hampering us but there’s nothing you can do about it!

“Let’s be fair, all the teams have had injuries, players’ missing.  I wouldn’t think there’s a Kent League side that’s fielded the same fifteen players every week.  It’s just we have had in one hit three or four (unavailable players’) at a time.”

When asked his aims for the rest of the league campaign, Sitford replied, “Well, we want to keep playing, keep going.  We want to finish up in the top half of the table, that’s what we want to do.  We’re not going to win it.  We know we’re not going to win it.  We’re not expecting to win it.

“If we can finish up in the top six to halfway we won’t be making any complaints.  We’ll be quite happy with that.”

VCD Athletic  v  Corinthian
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Tuesday 22^nd November 2011
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Oakwood, Old Road, Crayford, Kent DA1 4DN