We've been led up the garden path, fumes Mead boss Keith McMahon

Wednesday 29th September 2010
THAMESMEAD TOWN boss Keith McMahon says he is frustrated as improvements off-the-pitch are not matching the effort on the pitch at the moment, writes Stephen McCartney.


After losing 4-0 up at Heybridge Swifts earlier in the month, the Mead have defeated both Waltham Abbey and Tilbury to romp up to fifth place in the Ryman League Division One North table with 16 points from 9 games.

And looking ahead to Saturday’s FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round tie against Heybridge Swifts at Bayliss Avenue on Saturday, McMahon told www.kentishfootball.co.uk that his side should never had lost 4-0 up at Scraley Road.

“We’ve got bad memories of the result, but we actually played really well on the night and should have got something from the game, as silly as it sounds,” he recalled.

“We had six clear one-on-ones but just couldn’t score.  We had the lions share of possession and their manager came up to us after the game and couldn’t believe how we lost the game.

“We’re not going to be in fear.  I’m definitely going to say that and we’re going to worry them and since then we’ve had a couple of wins - so it’s a game we’re looking forward to.

“It will be great for the club (to have a FA Trophy run).  We haven’t had a run in it.  We went out of the FA Cup, disappointingly early doors to Beckenham, who, to be fair, was our worst game of the season and they thoroughly deserved to beat us.

“We need a run in the FA Trophy, financially as well.

“The team’s playing ever so well at the moment so if we do play well on the day there’s no reason why we can’t have a run.”

Speaking about his side’s rise up the league table, McMahon said: “Obviously that’s where we want to stay all season.  I think we’ve got the side.  The league’s very, very strong, all the way down.  It’s early days so we’ll see where we are after 10-15 games and then build from there.”

When asked about the re-development of Bayliss Avenue, things aren’t going as well as the football club had originally planned.

“It’s slow to be honest with you,” bemoaned McMahon.  “It’s a bit frustrating, it’s coming on but there’s things that, if I’m 100% honest, there’s things that should be happening and it’s not at the moment.

“There’s a few people dragging their feet, which is disappointing and the football club is suffering.

“The 3G (pitch) is basically ready but we can’t use it and things like that but it’s a lot of politics at the moment more than anything but it’s coming along ok.

“At the beginning the ground was meant to be open by now.  We were told we could use the 3G (pitch) by the end of September and now that’s changed.  There’s a lot happening off the scenes and it’s not in the football club’s best interests at the moment.

“It’s very, very frustrating.  We’ve got teams at the ground we didn’t even know about who can’t play and we’ve got to tell them they can’t play.  We’ve been, lets just say, led up the garden path!”

McMahon takes his side to fellow highflyers East Thurrock United next Saturday - a game that he is looking forward to.

“They’re favourites to win our league, they’ve started very strong, they’ve got a strong side,” said McMahon.

“It will be a good test to see where we are and like I said we’re looking forward to these games and if you want to be in the top half or look to get promoted or be in the play-off’s there the games you want to play so we’re really looking forward to that one.”

McMahon has 19 players available to him for Saturday, as Danny Crouch and James Brown are recalled having missed their midweek win over Tilbury.

Visit Thamesmead Town’s website: www.thamesmeadtownfc.co.uk

Thamesmead Town  v Heybridge Swifts
FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round
Saturday 2nd October 2010 
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ