Kentish Football 
We must put our chances away, says Gary Abbott
Monday 04th October 2010
SITTINGBOURNE boss Gary Abbott says his side must start taking their chances - having suffered early FA Carlsberg Trophy elimination at the weekend, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Brickies squandered the chance of staging a Kent derby against Ramsgate in the first qualifying round after losing 2-0 up at Arlesey Town at the weekend.
Abbott was without the services of marksman six-goal Tom Bradbrook (in America on football business) and Hicham Akhazzan (groin station) and missed the eight-goal pairing.
“To be honest with you, we had Tom missing and Hicham wasn’t fit,” Abbott told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.
“We should have been 3-0 up at half-time, we absolutely ran the game. We were playing really good football but we couldn’t put the ball in the net.
“At half-time we gone in at 0-0 and it should have been 3-0. The game should’ve been over.
“Second half we missed another chance, Ross Morley missed a header two yards from goal. I said at half-time the only way we could lose the game is if we gave it to them and that’s exactly what we’ve done!
“Matt Reed (my goalkeeper) had nothing to do in the first half, other than a couple of punches and it’s so disappointing that we’ve given them the game.
“After they scored their heads went up and ours went down and they gone on and got another one.
“I’m really gutted because we’re not putting our chances away, which we have been in the last few weeks to be fair.
“We’ve got Burgess Hill away tomorrow night so hopefully we can get something out of that game.”
Sittingbourne also suffered a FA Cup exit to Andover at the first hurdle, so the club haven’t banked any much needed prize money from The Football Association this season.
“Obviously I was gutted about the FA Cup,” said Abbott. “That was the same story as Saturday and we didn’t manage to put the goals away and obviously the Trophy was a bit more money for the club but like I say it didn’t happen and now there’s not a lot we can do about it.
“We had the chances in both games to go through and if you don’t put your chances away you get punished and that’s exactly what happened.”
Abbott takes his side to Burgess Hill Town on Tuesday night, before welcoming Whyteleafe to Bourne Park on Saturday.
The Kent side go into the two games sitting in sixth place of the Ryman League Division One South table - with a record of four wins and three draws from nine outings - level on points with the Hillians who are one place lower, although the West Sussex outfit have a game in hand.
Whyteleafe, meanwhile, arrive at Bourne Park sitting in the bottom five - with two wins and two draws from their eight league games.
“The league is important, hopefully it’s third time lucky to get into the play-off’s and I think we’ve got the squad to do it,“ said Abbott.
“But, at the moment, a couple of injuries may take us off the road a little bit.”
Abbott added: “Hicham said he was alright on Saturday, but he had a bit of a groin strain last Tuesday so to be honest I didn’t want to put him in because of tomorrow’s game, so I left him out.
“Tom is still away for a week so he won’t be back until Saturday morning. Tom will play against Whyteleafe on Saturday.
“If Hicham is fit he will go up front with Ryan Golding tomorrow and we’ll have a go and try and get three points.
“Burgess Hill is going to be a tough game, they’ve had quite a good start. If we play like we did in the first half on Saturday and put our chances away then hopefully we’ll get three points but we just don’t want to get beat.
“We have to get something there and win our next game at home on Saturday and go from there.”
Looking ahead to Whyteleafe’s visit to Bourne Park at the weekend, Abbott added: “We had a couple of tough games against them last year. I’ve said every game is tough in the league no matter where they are and that proved against Whitstable last Tuesday.
“We’re good enough to beat Whyteleafe at home. We’ve done alright at home but we have to concentrate on Burgess Hill first and then we’ll worry about Whyteleafe on Saturday.”
Visit Sittingbourne’s website: www.sittingbournefc.co.uk
Burgess Hill Town v Sittingbourne
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 5th October 2010
Kick Off 7:30pm
At Leylands Park, Maple Drive, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 8DL
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd