Kentish Football 
We need to see a reaction pretty quickly, says Tunbridge Wells boss Martin Larkin
Monday 18th April 2011
GREENWICH BOROUGH boss Steve Firkins expects some kind of backlash from beaten Kent Senior Trophy Finalists Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday night, writes Stephen McCartney.
Martin Larkin’s side suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Erith Town in Sunday’s showpiece final at Park View Road, Welling, and Firkins knows all about picking up the pieces of shattered dreams.
His Greenwich Borough side lost last year’s final 2-1 to Faversham Town a year ago, but they bounced back by beating Beckenham Town in their next game, which was played only 48 hours after the final.
“I still expect a tight game,” said Firkins, on the eve of the Oakley Road Kent League clash.
“They’re not far off us, I think they’re looking to finish as high as possible - as we are.”
Reflecting on life after losing last year’s final, Firkins knows exactly how Larkin is feeling now.
“We had to face Beckenham the following Tuesday,” Firkins recalled. “I know what Martin and the lads are going through. It’s a bit of a downer, but you’ve still got league games to finish off.”
But Firkins was pleased that his side bounced back from their Final defeat by beating Beckenham Town 4-1.
He said: I’m hoping he doesn’t come back with the same sort of result!
“It was disappointing. We went back to the EDF Club we were using at the time. We sat down and had a drink and drowned our sorrows. There’s no point on dwelling on things. At night you sit in your chair and think could you have done things differently?
“In a way it’s a bit of a welcome (game), instead of going a week before your next game or training. You have to concentrate on what you’re doing in your next game.
“In a way it’s a God send. We had the added bonus that it was Beckenham, our rivals, and that done us a big, big favour playing Beckenham.
“I don’t expect nothing different from Tunbridge Wells. I think they will come here and give us a stiff game. There’s nothing you can do about the Cup Final. It’s done and dusted.”
Greenwich Borough go into the game sitting in fourth place in the Safety Net Associates Kent League table and have beaten both Erith Town and VCD Athletic in their last two games.
However, Firkins side are six points adrift of third-placed VCD Athletic, and are four points ahead of fifth-placed Erith Town, so there’s plenty to play for during their last three games of the season.
“We have three league games to play - they still have four games to play - and they want to target the teams above them to see if they can claw them back,” said Firkins.
“All we can do is try and win our last three games. It’s in the lap of the Gods and it’s up to what VCD do - they’ve got to play Herne Bay (on the final day of the season), so there’s still lots to play for, for Herne Bay as well.
“We need VCD to slip up if we are going to get third place but VCD are one of the better sides in the Kent League. If they do slip up hopefully we will be there or there abouts, but at the moment we’d like to stay where we are and not to drop down a place and to do that we have to win our last three games.
“We had our bad period (in February and March) where we lost four games on the spin, which put us out of the race for the higher league positions. We’ve had a decent run (four wins from our last seven games), the fellas have dug in and gone about our work but it’s come at the wrong time for us, I think.”
Since playing champions-elect Hythe Town at Oakley Road on 15 March, which was watched by their largest crowd of the season - 45 - Firkins is pleased that since his plea for support, crowds have positively increased slightly.
Greenwich Borough’s average has slightly increased to 31 - and Firkins would like some of the 200 Tunbridge Wells fans that attended Sunday’s Final to prove they are not glory hunters and that they’ll watch Tuesday night’s bread and butter of the Kent League.
“We’ve been lucky with the games we’ve had. They were all games for us to come into and we’ve averaged 35-40 so it’s more than welcomed, but it’s the games against your Sporting Bengal’s (watched by only 15 back in November), Holmesdale (14) and when we played Deal in the early part of the season we had a small crowd of 27.
“It’s still going to be a problem for us unfortunately. We’ve actually had a little meeting the other day to come up with some ideas to get people to games but I don’t know. As I said before, there’s no allegiance to Greenwich Borough in that area. You’ve got Bromley and Cray Wanderers around the corner and I think we’re fighting a losing battle.
“You’re bashing your head against a brick wall. We can’t afford to reduce the rates as we won’t have enough money to pay the officials.”
Kicking off earlier so local fans can watch another game and playing midweek games on different nights have been discussed, but Greenwich Borough and landlords Holmesdale can only use floodlights at Oakley Road on Tuesday nights - the same night that Bromley and Cray Wanderers play down the road at Hayes Lane.
“If you do remember we had to kick-off earlier last year because of the floodlight failure and we had less supporters then. A couple of fellas that were coming down on a regular basis said they work lunchtimes so when they came to the ground they missed the first half,” explained Firkins.
“We have considered Friday night’s but we have to look into that with Holmesdale as there’s a problem with the lights going on in certain nights.
“We do keep coming up with these schemes and people saying why don’t we try this and try that, but sometimes it’s not feasible to do it.”
Tunbridge Wells boss, Martin Larkin, meanwhile, wants his side to show some mettle and bounce back and end their miserable run of four straight defeats.
Before Keelan Mooney grabbed an equaliser on Sunday, Wells went three league games without scoring, and although bitterly disappointed, Larkin wants to see a positive reaction against Greenwich Borough.
“It’s going to be very tough, but we’re going to learn a lot about them now,” he said.
“Those who want to kick on with their non-league careers or are they happy to let things drift so it will be interesting how the guys’ react.
Following their dip in form, Tunbridge Wells have dropped down to eighth place in the Kent League table, but Larkin wants to finish on a high.
“The target has always been to improve on last year where we finished seventh,” he said. “So either seventh with more points or sixth or fifth is what we’re after. To do that we have to win games. We need to see a reaction pretty quickly.”
www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game
Visit Greenwich Borough’s website: www.greenwichboroughfc.com
Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewells.fc.co.uk
Greenwich Borough v Tunbridge Wells
Safety Net Associates Kent League
Tuesday 19th April 2011
Kick Off 7:45pm
At 68 Oakley Road, Bromley, Kent BR2 8HQ
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd