Kentish Football 
We'll smash Hythe but I don't want to do Herne Bay any favors, says Norton boss Ben Taylor
Monday 18th April 2011
NORTON SPORTS’ player-manager Ben Taylor insists he will take no prisoners during his side’s next two games, writes Stephen McCartney.
Central defender Taylor is still smarting from his side’s embarrassing 7-0 home defeat at the hands of Erith & Belvedere on 3 April, and he takes his side to Park View Road on Tuesday night looking to make amends against Micky Collins’ side.
“Hopefully it will be a lot better game than was at our ground hopefully, when we got spanked 7-0, so we owe them one,” said Taylor.
“We’re going there confident. We’ve come off the back of a good win on Saturday - 6-2 against Sporting Bengal - I know they’re bottom of the league but you still have to win those games, but I was happy with that.”
Jon Neal (injured), Lewis Rivett (away on personal reasons), Russell Jeffrey (work) and Ryan Rook (work), have been ruled out.
Taylor added: “Hopefully we can repay ourselves and do a bit more justice this time round.”
Reflecting on the Sunday Shocker, the former Fisher Athletic and Sittingbourne skipper, said, “Everything went wrong. Six individual mistakes went wrong. They played well but we had four or five shots ourselves but they could’ve scored another couple more. It was a bad, bad day at the office to be honest.
“I hope I can jeer them up and wind them up so we’ll have a go at them and beat them. I’m confident.”
“Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll put on a good performance on a nice pitch, which always helps us play better on Welling’s pitch and I’m confident with what we’ve got.
The Woodstock Park based outfit are presently sitting in tenth place in the Kent League table with 9 wins, 8 draws and 9 defeats.
Champions-elect Hythe Town visit on Good Friday, before Kent Senior Trophy winners, Erith Town visit on Easter Monday (both games kicking off at 1pm), before Norton complete their campaign with a trip to Lordswood on 30 April.
Taylor said: “I want to finish as high as we did last year, so it will be nice to do a job on them tomorrow night and hopefully catch up a couple of teams up, which we’re more then capable of doing. We’ve dropped some points this year and it’s really p****d me off!”
Don’t expect too much glorious football to be played when Norton Sports lock horns with Scott Porter’s Hythe Town on Good Friday.
“We’ll smash them, don’t worry about that,” insisted Taylor.
“I’m confident of beating Hythe definitely! Why? Well, we are Norton. We’ll do a job on Hythe.
“I’m very confident. For some reason, I don’t know why, every time we play them we always push them and we always score goals against them. We’ve got them at home so we’ll see.”
Hythe lead Herne Bay by five points and with only three games left to play and it appears that the Kent League title is heading to Reachfields Stadium, especially as Hythe Town are now 22 games unbeaten.
But Taylor insisted he isn’t going out to take three points off Hythe to help out their former landlords, Herne Bay.
“I don’t think Herne Bay have got a chance to be honest,” said Taylor.
“In a strange sort of way we want to win against Hythe, of course we do, but I don’t want to do Herne Bay any favours.
“That’s not be being horrible - they kicked us off their pitch which I said thanks for - but why should we do them a favour? But we want to take points off Hythe. It’s a catch-22 really, but I don’t want Herne Bay to win it.”
Taylor warned, “It’s going to be a battle. Last time we played them we were 4-0 up at half-time and they won 6-4.
“Hythe have got big, strong players but we’re not going to roll over for no-one, even though we did at Erith & Belvedere.
“We’re going to stay strong. All they do is get the ball out of their feet and put it into the channels in decent areas and make decent runs. It’s going to be a hard game. It’s whoever wants it the most.”
Visit Norton Sports’ website: www.webteams.co.uk/Home.aspx?team=nortonsportsfc
Erith & Belvedere v Norton Sports
Safety Net Associates Kent League
Tuesday 19th April 2011
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd