We'll struggle to keep hold off Alfie May, says Corinthian boss Matt Longhurst

CORINTHIAN boss Matt Longhurst praised his youngsters after they came away from Fisher with a 3-0 victory at Champion Hill yesterday.



Longhurst was without five of his more senior players in the shape of Ryan Johnson, Lee Barnett, Lee Woodyard, Rob Denness and Jamie Taylor, but highly-rated striker Alfie May, 19, took his goalscoring tally for the season to eleven after scoring a brace and Chirs Kinnear netted his first of the season to seal the points against Steve Firkins’ side.

The Corinthian boss hailed it a “great result” and his side are now in tenth-place in the Kent Hurlimann Football League table with 12 points from nine games.

Longhurst said: “Second half performance we deserved the points and a credit to the players on a day when we had so many of the club’s youngsters playing alongside each other.

“Dan Bent played central midfield at just 16-years-old for 90 minutes and after an initial wobbly fifteen minutes he grew in stature and by the end of the game was influential in the middle of the park, ably assisted by Josh James and Chris Kinnear, two of our veterans at 20 and 21 years old respectively.

“Losing new signing Sam May after three minutes, although he did set the first goal up after two minutes for brother Alfie, we introduced another product of the Ryman Youth League team Jack Howlett up front and he gave an assured performance causing the home defence problems with his power and pace. 

“He linked well with his now elder strike partners Ben Watson and Alfie May at 19-years-old, the latter of which scored twice to take his tally to eleven for the season.”

Longhurst believes Alfie May can follow his older brother into a higher level of football.

“Having had a few May’s play for me over the years – I had Jay May from 15-years-old and Sam and Luke both in their younger years and when they played at Slade Green and Chatham for me, although Jay has gone on and done brilliantly well. 

“Alfie has the most natural talent and best technical ability out of them all and they would all agree with me on that.  Having watched him as a ten-year-old at Millwall, it hasn’t come as a surprise I brought him down last season and he played lots of reserve team games and towards the end of the season we blooded him in the Kent League side this season he is going from strength to strength and we’ll struggle to keep hold of him past Christmas if he keeps going the way he is.

“But the club’s policy and ethos with these young players will always stay the same and hopefully with the structure in place now with the coaching and set up from 13s upwards we’ll hopefully see many more talented lads come through the ranks.

“As I said earlier a day before the game, it’s a joy to work with this group of players on the training pitch and the attitude of the senior players yesterday was brilliant.   

“We had Ryan Johnson, Lee Barnett, Lee Woodyard, Rob Denness, Jamie Taylor and Adam Marsh missing yesterday with a wedding, work and injuries, so to come away with three points and a clean sheet the lads certainly should be proud of themselves.”

Corinthian welcome Cray Valley (Paper Mills) to Gay Dawn Farm next Saturday. Steve Chapman’s side are in seventh-place in the table, with 17 points from eleven games, but went down to a 4-2 home defeat at the hands of Woodstock Sports yesterday.

Longhurst said: it’s about starting to become more consistent in our levels of performance as with young players they can be a little bit inconsistent and we’ll do everything in our power to stop that happening, but Saturday will be a difficult game.  They have a decent budget there this year and a good coach in Darren (Anslow) who will have them organised so we’ll expect a tough game.

“We take each game one by one but we’re now unbeaten in the league for five games and I’ve said to the lads we just need to keep topping that up game by game and see where it takes us. There’s no pressure on us at all, just let them enjoying their football and results will come.”

Visit Corinthian’s website:  www.pitchero.com/clubs/corinthianfc

Corinthian  v  Cray Valley (Paper Mills)
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Saturday 20^th October 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Gay Dawn Farm, Valley Road, Fawkham, Longfield, Kent DA3 8LY