We've blown hot and cold this season, admits Tonbridge Angels boss Tommy Warrilow

TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Tommy Warrilow admits to feeling frustrated over his side’s inaugural campaign in Blue Square Bet South, writes Stephen McCartney.


Warrilow says his side are blowing hot and cold as they go into Saturday’s home clash against strugglers Thurrock – a game they must win to ease the pressure.

Tonbridge Angels, who are playing at their highest level of football, lie in fifteenth place in the table, with five wins and three draws from fifteen league outings.

Thurrock, meanwhile, lie second-from-bottom in the Conference South table, with two wins and three draws from their thirteen league outings and the Angels boss is looking for three points to edge up the table.

“Well, the thing is anyone who can string two or three wins together, you shoot up the table,” said Warrilow, knowing that Boreham Wood secured four league wins on the spin to climb away from the bottom into ninth place in the table.

“Thurrock, on paper, have got a good side, like the other teams down the bottom, Staines, Dorchester and we’ve come unstuck there.  We have to roll our sleeves up and work really hard and bounce back from the frustrating defeat we had (at Dorchester) last Saturday.”

When asked how he feels over his side’s performances, Warrilow replied, “I keep using the word, I think that’s it, frustrating because we’ve had a couple of poor performances.  I’ve gone on record of saying, I know we haven’t, but I believe our performances we should have more points on the table.  We’ve had a few scenarios that we could have got more points than we have, but the bottom line is we haven’t. 

“I’m pleased with the start, we have not been out of our depth or anything like that or major work needed.  We just have to grow up a little bit and learn from our opening fifteen games and just try to rectify some part of it, turning draws into wins and the losses into draws or wins.

“I’m frustrated, probably the most frustrated I’ve been since I’ve been at the club because I believe we’re not a million miles away.

“This time last year we started the (Ryman Premier League) season all over the shop and to be honest what I brought in hasn’t worked, whereas this year we’ve blown hot and cold.  We’ve showed we can do it and we’ve showed we haven’t.  It’s just that consistency which we have got into our game.

“I’ve tried a few new formations and tried getting new faces.  How can we go to Dover and draw 0-0, where we were a little bit disappointed we didn’t get anything more on the day, but happy we’ve kept a clean sheet and we’re happy with the performance.

“Within a space of seven days’ I’ve come off the pitch the following Saturday and let in eleven goals (having lost 6-3 at home to Woking, then 5-1 at home to Farnborough)  – it’s just things like that!  Why can’t we defend like we did the previous Saturday?

“We changed it, sent a threat out to look for players’ and then we pick up a little bit but it’s just that elusive wins on the spin is what we need.  Saturday I’m disappointed as it was an ideal opportunity to do that but we haven’t, so we dust ourselves off, we go training tonight and hopefully rectify it Saturday.

“The most important thing is to get the win and then we’ll assess how we got the win afterwards and then we’ll build on that.”

Tonbridge Angels would be crazy if they were to sell prolific striker Frannie Collin, who has scored 13 goals this season.

Warrilow said:  “Frannie’s obviously leading goalscorer, that’s a lot down to people like Ade (Olorunda), who have been playing up there with him.

“Fran’s playing well at the moment.  There’s parts of the game that we’re working on and there’s little bits to make Frannie a better player.

“There’s been a lot of speculation and interest but at the moment I said to him get his head down and this could be Frannie’s season and we as a club don’t want to lose him but if we are to lose him they have to be for the right reasons, they’ve got to be right for Frannie as well.”

Warrilow reaches a club milestone as Saturday’s game against Thurrock will be his 208^th game in charge at Longmead Stadium, the fifth longest serving manager at the club.  He is also two wins away from his 100^th win as Tonbridge manager and he will be only the fourth manager to achieve this at the club.

“Oh right, that’s nice to know,” said Warrilow, unaware of that statistic as he doesn’t read the unofficial fans’ forum.

“I just want to get my head down and concentrate on my job on the football pitch.  We have stepped up a level and everyone’s looking to settle down and deep down I know there’s a lot of fans’ who aren’t going to settle for that.  I know people who want us to get out of this league.

“I’m enjoying it.  I’d like to think since I’ve been there the club’s gone one way.  The club’s always been around the play-off’s and last year we took it a step further and got promoted.

“It’s looking good on and off the pitch.  I think we’re all frustrated that we haven’t got a few more points on the table but we’ve come into the league and I’m happy that we’re not looking like we’re swimming out of our depth.”

Visit Tonbridge Angels’ website: www.tonbridgeangels.co.uk

Tonbridge Angels  v  Thurrock
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 5^th November 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Longmead Stadium, Darenth Road, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 3JW