Kentish Football 
We want to go one better, says Corinthian boss Matt Longhurst
They travel to Park View Road to play promoted champions Erith & Belvedere in this season’s final after tasting defeat to VCD Athletic in last years’ final at Cray Valley’s Badgers’ Sports Ground at Middle Park Avenue in Eltham.
Corinthian can complete their Kent League campaign in fourth-place if they win at FA Carlsberg Vase runners-up and newly-crowned Kent Senior Trophy winners Tunbridge Wells next Monday.
Reflecting on their campaign, Longhurst said: “So far so good. Obviously Saturday is our main focus now, so we’ll think about the league after Saturday.
“At the moment I would say that we’ve had an extremely good season. If we win Saturday then I’d say we’ve had an amazing season.”
Micky Collins’ side clinched the Kent League title by two points, after being taken all the way by Tony Russell’s VCD Athletic in another dramatic title race.
The Deres go into the final on a nine-match unbeaten run.
“What am I expecting on Saturday, well, I’m expecting to play an extremely confident Erith & Belvedere side, who are playing at their home ground,” said the former Slade Green boss.
“Secondly, they’ve just won the league and haven’t yet played a game as champions.
“We played them a few weeks ago and drew 1-1 and I felt we were definitely, definitely in the game for long periods and possibly on chances should have won the game. At the time they were going through a bad patch and we played them at the right time, but having said that they’re unbeaten in lots of games and went on to win the league.
“It’s going to be an extremely difficult tie, but one we’re certainly looking forward to.”
Longhurst wants to lift the Kent League Cup after going so close during his three year stint at the Gay Dawn Farm outfit.
He said: “I think I spoke to you a couple of rounds back when we played Holmesdale away, when it was absolutely pouring with rain and we beat them 5-0 away from home.
“We’ve conceded one goal in this tournament and that was a 30-yard screamer from Lee Morgan against VCD in the second leg, which we won 2-1.
“To be honest we’re looking to go one better without a doubt! My first year we lost to Herne Bay in the semi-final and deservedly so and then last year we lost to VCD (in the final) and we probably should have gone in front before VCD scored and then we had Adam Marsh sent off and it became a difficult day for us.
“Certainly we’ll be trying to go one better without a doubt.”
For a club of Corinthian’s status to finish in the top four or five in the Kent League is a remarkable achievement – something that Longhurst is proud off.
“To be honest we didn’t particularly wanted to go to Tunbridge Wells after having played in a cup final, should the result go either way, to be honest,” said Longhurst.
“We were due to play them a couple of weeks ago and they asked not to play us because they lost five in a row and they had the Vase final coming up, so they asked us not to play so we’ve had to put it back to next Monday.
“The way the weather is at the moment the ground’s quite hard so Monday will be a difficult game, but to be honest we’re not even contemplating Monday at the moment – we’re concentrating on Saturday’s game.
Longhurst paid tribute to director of football Tony Sitford for his contribution and wants to become the first manager to win the Kent League for a long time without a playing budget next season.
Tunbridge Wells reached a Wembley Final without a playing budget and Longhurst wants to achieve league success in similar circumstances.
He said: “Tony Sitford has been outstanding for me since I’ve been here in terms of my own development here and the people who run the club, run it so well.
“It would be brilliant to be able to give them some silverware because they’re outstanding.
“The boys that I’ve got here have been absolutely outstanding. They don’t get paid, there’s no money here, they do the right things, come in for training twice a week.
“They’ve got the day off work tomorrow so they’re going to come in for a slight (training) session in the afternoon and the club’s taking us for a meal early evening so we try and do things as professional as we possibly can and that’s going to lead all the way to the final.”
The club are expected to lose two of their most talented youngsters at the end of the season.
Striker Alfie May, 19, has scored 32 goals this season and has a whole host of clubs chasing his signature and central defender Daniel Bent is Gillingham bound.
When asked whether he expects his most-sought after players to leave, Longhurst replied, “Possibly! Possibly, but it really depends on the way of which we’re going to look at next year to be honest.
“We’re a club that previously and up to now has been a feeder club for other teams because we don’t pay any money and everyone knows that!
“When you get players like Alfie May and other youngsters’ people are going to come and take them.
“Dan Bent’s signed a two-year scholarship with Gillingham, so he’s definitely going, which is brilliant for him and brilliant for us as a club
for bringing him through.
“Alfie’s got a numerous amount of clubs chasing him at the moment from the Ryman South, Ryman Premier and Conference South as well.
“The likelihood is he’s going to move on but he’s got to be extremely careful which club he chooses. He must play next year. He can’t sit on the bench. He’s only nineteen so he needs to choose the right club and I will help him do that as well.
“He might do pre-season at a pro-club but we’re just waiting for them to come to us.
“He could move potentially but having said that if we go and win the cup on Saturday and we win on Monday and we finish fourth with a cup we’ll look to become the first team in the league to win the league with no budget (next season). I don’t know (if we can do that), but we’ll have to sit down with the chairman and the players after Monday.
“I think next year the Kent League is going to be extremely competitive. There’s some good mangers in there now. We’re losing two clubs with VCD and Erith & Belvedere going up, which I think has been confirmed today.
“But if you had said to most chairmen in the league could a Kent League club reach a cup final and finish top four or five without a budget most people would definitely say ‘no I don’t think you can.’
“It’s going to be an extremely difficult task to keep players, to carry on doing things, but at the same time we’ve proven this year we’ve played 21 games since 8 December and we’ve only lost one and that was to VCD – 16 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat. On the day we didn’t perform particularly well - so that’s championship form!
“It’s only the fact that VCD and Erith Town prior to that – when Tony Russell was in charge – that both went on brilliant runs and Erith & Belvedere started the season absolutely on fire so I think there’s potential.
“But it’s an extremely difficult league to get out of and as all the previous teams that have won it had money you can bet against it that a team with no money winning the league.
“We’ve come up against that since I’ve been here and overcome those things. We’d like to give it a go.”
Visit Corinthian’s website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/corinthianfc/
Erith & Belvedere v Corinthian
Macron Kent League Cup Final
Saturday 11th May 2013
Kick Off 12:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
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