Kentish Football 
Ashford have major say in who wins title - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Ashford Town manager John Cumberbatch is delighted that his side can go into their last two home games - against the top two sides - without any pressure on them, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Nuts & Bolts preserved their Ryman League Division One South status over the Easter period and can welcome leaders Maidstone United (Tuesday) and Tooting & Mitcham (Saturday) in a relaxed frame of mind, but still wanting to win.
There is no training for Ashford’s players tonight, having played a physically draining 16 games in the last 43 days.
Expecting to be speaking to Cumberbatch from his Rochester training camp tonight, he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk : “We’re not training tonight as we’ve had so many games - we played four games last week - that’s a lot of work on the legs on hard pitches.”
Ashford prevented Dulwich Hamlet from qualifying for the play-off’s on Saturday, drawing 3-3 at Champion Hill, in a game that the Kent side let in two late goals.
“Pleased with the way we played in the second half but disappointed obviously in the final ten minutes,” said former Hamlet player Cumberbatch.
“We were a little bit lax and let things go - we thought we had the game won.”
But Cumberbatch’s men, who we rightly said “we’re too good to go down”, collected a vital 18 points from their last 14 league games to ensure that the club will be playing Ryman League football again in August.
“I always said to the team that we had to make sure we were safe before we went into the Dulwich game,” recalled Cumberbatch.“That was something for the last two months that we’ve been concentrating on.
“We knew if we needed the points in the final three games, they were going to be highly pressurised games.
“We felt that if we were safe by the time we went into these games, then we’d be more relaxed and we’d play better football.”
Despite being safe, however, Ashford Town have a major say in which side wins the Ryman League Division One South title this week.
Maidstone United arrive at The Homelands tomorrow night on 76 points, the same number as Tooting & Mitcham United.
But Cumberbatch believes his side can cause an upset against a Maidstone United side that require four points from their last two games to win back-to-back league titles.
“We know we’re a much better side than our position suggests and the only way we can show that is gaining more points,” he said.
“The fact that we may do that against a side that could ultimately win the championship would just be added spice.
“It makes it more interesting that at Homelands there are still two games with major interest and are not your normal end of season wind downs - and that’s good.”
Walid Matata (ankle), Kevin Lott and Joby Thorogood (recovering from a knee operation) are still out, whilst Steve Sodje and Anthony Allman should be fit enough to play against their title chasing Kentish rivals.
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Ashford Town v Maidstone United
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 24th April 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Homelands, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ
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