Cray Valley boss Paul Gross: If you want to be a winner and you want to win things you’ve got to do the horrible stuff

CRAY VALLEY boss Paul Gross says he jumped at the chance to bring coach Darren Anslow back to the club.

Anslow has been at the Eltham-based club for a couple of games since his short spell coaching at Ryman League Division One South side Hythe Town when Tony Beckingham was joint-manager with Clive Cook.

The Millers booked their place in the Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Quarter-Finals after two goals from Rory Hill saw them defeat tenants Erith Town last night.

Cray Valley are underachieving in fifteenth-place in the table with 14 points from as many games and host second-from-bottom Holmesdale to Middle Park Avenue on Saturday.

The two sides met at Oakley Road on 28 October with Cray Valley coming out on top with a 3-1 win.

“Sometimes it’s not always pretty in football but I’ve been in this league long enough to know it’s not always the prettiest sides that gets results and wins this league, so we’ll just have to do things how we can to gain three points,” said Gross, whose side are at the bottom of the Respect table for September, recently published by the League.

Reflecting on his club’s lowly-league position, Gross admitted: “It’s not good enough! I know that. I think everyone knows that but what I will say is if you put a little run together I think you’re nine points away from fifth or something silly like that.

“Apart from Hollands & Blair and Greenwich Borough no one’s grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and everyone’s beating each other so put a little run together, hopefully, I know all clubs are thinking that way, but if we can just worry about ourselves and play like we did last night I hope we can get up that table and get in a better position where I would hope we can be.

“What’s missing? Consistency,” added Gross.

“Like I said to the boys sometimes we want to go on the pitch and play like Barcelona and we’ve done it down here. We beat Ashford 5-1, we beat Sevenoaks 4-1 and then we’ll come away a week later and we’ll lose 5-4!

“Sometimes it’s managing games and it’s doing the horrible stuff. I know they just want to enjoy themselves and play football but if you want to be a winner and you want to win things you’ve got to do the horrible stuff.  There’s two sides of football and we just need to get to grips of knowing how to adapt.”

Gross is delighted to be working alongside Anslow, who has a wealth of experience at this level.

He said: “I was having to play quite a bit. We were having injuries and circumstances on and off the pitch.

“If he’s out of the game and he’s got a wealth of knowledge, he’s a great coach and he’s out of the game why not tap into that and use it?

“I’m not afraid to say sometimes we might need a bit of help from outside so the way I see it if he stands on the sides and watches us and I get none of his knowledge - or he comes and stands next to me and I can tap into his knowledge.

“Hopefully it will work. He’s come in and done two sessions and we’ve had two positive results so he can take a bit of credit for that as well.

“I needed more help. It’s hard trying to juggle everything so that’s the thinking behind that. Martin (Barnard’s) worked with him before, we all have.  I don’t have a problem with that. He’s a friend of ours anyway. It comes as a natural fit for me.”

Visit Cray Valley’s website: www.cray-valley.co.uk

Cray Valley (Paper Mills)  v  Holmesdale
Southern Counties East Football League
Saturday 14^th November 2015
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Badgers Sports Club, Middle Park Avenue, Eltham, London SE9 5HT