We're confident we'll get out of the relegation zone, says Thamesmead Town boss Keith McMahon

THAMESMEAD TOWN manager Keith McMahon says his side are getting to grips with life in the Ryman Premier League.

The Mead were held to a deserved draw in the battle of the basement at the weekend.

Carshalton Athletic belied their position at the foot of the table with a dominant first half performance at Bayliss Avenue and went in at the break with the lead courtesy of Niall McManus’ fluke, a left wing cross which sailed over Rob Budd’s head to find the top far corner.

But third-from-bottom Thamesmead Town put in a much improved performance after the break and Danny Phillips’ fourth goal of the season gave McMahon’s men their eleventh point after 18 games.

The Mead are playing at their highest level of football in their history and have struggled to cope with life in their new surroundings.

They welcome seventeenth-placed Hampton & Richmond Borough to Bayliss Avenue on Tuesday night, searching for only their second home league win of the season.

The Mead are five points adrift of safety and a victory over the Beavers will certainly help their bid to beat the drop.

“It’s a big game,” said McMahon, who does his homework on teams by going out to watch them.

“They’ve been on a good run until Harrow beat them the other week.

“It will be another tough game for us. Again, we’re at home.

“We’ve got a little bit more belief about us now, we’re a little bit more solid and our shape is a lot better.

“If we can take Saturday’s second performance and we can keep the ball, hopefully we can get a result on Tuesday and if we’ve got four points this week, we will be happy.”

Reflecting on their poor start to the season, the Mead boss replied: “At the beginning of the season it weren’t good enough, no, but it’s easy to say that but look at the size of club we are?!

“We’ve got the smallest wage budget, we’ve got the smallest crowds. We’ve come up from nowhere in the last three or four years. We need to maybe look at ourselves and see how well we’ve done in the short period of time.

“It’s taken a while to get a grip, which we have now. We’ve made a few mistakes and got punished but now it’s time to pick some points up.”

When asked how many points his side must collect to maintain their Ryman Premier League status at the end of the season, McMahon said: “I said at the beginning of the season forty would be the thing. When you’re looking at it at the moment, who knows? Everybody is beating everybody!

“We’ve just got to keep our head afloat and keep in contact.  There’s five or six teams only six points (ahead of us) and that’s not much at this level. 

“We’ve played top 12 sides already and we’re starting to play a few sides around us and we’re getting points so that’s all we’ve got to look at. We’re confident we’ll get out of it.”

Visit Thamesmead Town’s website: www.thamesmeadtownfc.com  

Thamesmead Town  v  Hampton & Richmond Borough
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 26^th November 2013
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ