Ashford ravaged by injuries for YMCA visit - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Depleted Ashford Town welcome mid-table side Horsham YMCA to the Homelands tomorrow night in desperate need of a victory, writes Stephen McCartney.

Saturday’s home draw with Chatham Town keeps them inside the Ryman League Division One South drop zone, having collected just two points from their last four games.

Leading scorer George Fenwick netted his fifteenth goal of the season in the closing stages of the game against their Medway visitors to salvage a point.

But manager John Cumberbatch emphasised the importance of his injury hit side to take their chances to enable them to shoot themselves to safety.

Cumberbatch concentrated on hitting the target during their training session tonight in Rochester as the side have scored only 26 goals in the league this season - the lowest total in the division.

“Despite the fact in parts of games we’re playing well and dominating, we’re just not finishing,” he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk following their Astroturf session.

“Injuries have hit us badly and keep changing personnel. It doesn’t help and stops your flow when you have to keep changing the side because it’s hard to get any fluent play going.”

Cumberbatch revealed that lightening-quick striker, Walid Matata, 24, will hopefully return to action for next Saturday’s trip to promotion chasing Fleet Town.

“We do miss Walid quite dramatically really,” said Cumberbatch. “The wound he had on his shin is taking longer to heel as expected.”

Defender Graham Porter, 32, is rated 50/50 to have recovered from his groin strain for their trip to Hampshire.

But Cumberbatch doesn’t know when Nick Fenwick (back injury) and Anthony Allman (ankle) will return from injury.

Allman is going to have a scan on his ankle but Cumberbatch will need to know the result before he can judge how long the 26-year-old will be out of action.

But despite leading the goalscoring charts at the Homelands, George Fenwick has been told to improve his game.

“Funnily enough George knows since he’s come back he hasn’t played quite well but he has come up with two vital goals,” explained the manager.

“Having said that, he did miss a crucial penalty against Leatherhead, which meant we didn’t get the three points, which we really need.

“George is under no illusions and he knows he has to contribute more.”

Cumberbatch needs Fenwick and the rest of his team to pull off a successful result on home soil tomorrow night.

“We will be going with a depleted side but we’re still reasonably confident we’ll get a result, but it will be very difficult,” he said.

“We’re a little bit cautious at the moment with the injuries we’ve got and praying we don’t pick up anymore.”

Ashford Town have collected six wins and six draws from their 25 league games and have games in hand over the rest of the teams in their division.

But Cumberbatch knows his side must start turning these games in hand into points.

He said: “We’re just looking to pick up points from the games in hand. We can’t look too closely at the table but we need to get points from the games.

“Once it’s balanced out and those games have been played then we’re going to see where we are.

“We just have to focus on this little period (where we play) a lot of games that we pick up one point or three points.”

Cumberbatch admitted that he hasn’t had a chance to do any homework on Horsham YMCA, a side coached by former Ashford Town manager Tommy Sampson.

The Goring’s Mead outfit have collected 38 points (11 wins and 5 draws) from their 26 games but have hit a rocky patch of form of late.

“We don’t know a lot about them. I can only go on what I’ve read on them as it’s been impossible to watch them but the games I’ve tried to watch them I can’t because of training and other reasons,” explained Cumberbatch.

“I know a little about one or two of their players but all I can go by is the form guide and that they’re doing very well, higher in the table than we are and we’ve got a very tough game. I expect them to be a physically strong and organised side.”

Cumberbatch explained the situation with regards to bringing in fresh blood.

He said: “I am looking to do so but that’s where it gets difficult because I’ve got to look whether I’m getting in people short term to cover for those injuries.

“And there’s certain positions where we need long-term replacements.”

He added: “The side’s quite confident but tentative. Again it goes back to our injury position.

“If we had everybody fit then we’d be fully confident so they’re a bit apprehensive.”

Reflecting on their 1-1 draw against Phil Miles’ Chatham, he added: “In some ways we’ve got to look at it and say it’s better than the game at their place when we dominated and lost.

“We dominated again on Saturday but we got the ball in their box but didn’t create chances, which was disappointing.

“A lot of balls in their box was swallowed up by their goalkeeper and that’s one of the things we looked at in training tonight - finishing off the balls that end up in their box and getting people on the end of them.”

Visit Ashford Town’s website: www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

Ryman League Division One South Table (bottom six)

Ashford Town v Horsham YMCA
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 20^th February 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Homelands, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ