Deres joint-boss tells fans: My side will entertain you - EXCLUSIVE

FANS’ RECEIVE plenty of value for their money when they pay just £6 to watch Kent League side Erith & Belvedere play at Park View Road, writes Stephen McCartney.

A total of 53 goals have been scored during their last eight games at the ground in Welling.

And fans witnessed another thrilling game tonight, the London Senior Cup fourth round tie against Wealdstone.

The Stones, fifth-from-bottom in the Ryman Premier League, booked a quarter-final home tie against Blue Square South outfit Fisher Athletic, after winning a NINE-GOAL THRILLER.

When Wealdstone raced into a 3-0 lead inside 27 minutes, Erith & Belvedere looked dead and buried - but they had other ideas.

“This side’s never dead and buried,” insisted Erith & Belvedere’s joint-manager Chris Cosgrove, when speaking EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after this extraordinary game.

“This side’s got so much heart, balls about them, they’re never dead and buried.

“They just don’t know when they’re beat and they keep going and going until the end.

“It just shows what sort of spirit we’ve got in the camp at the moment.”

Two goals in a space of just 125 seconds, the first coming from Matt Johnson’s penalty, quickly followed by Aiden Pursglove, captalising on an error from Stones’ second choice goalkeeper Daniel Carr, brought the Kent side back into life.

But Wealdstone’s impressive right-winger, Alex Campana, netted his second of the game just before the break to make it 4-2.

However, Lee Benavente scored his fourth goal of the season with just ELEVEN SECONDS on the second half clock to give Erith & Belvedere hope.

Carr escaped any cards when he brought down Pursglove when the striker looked certain to score, but Johnson rifled home the resulting penalty to bring the Deres level for the first time - after 52 minutes.

“He was the last man,” bemoaned Cosgrove. “Laws of the laws say he was last man and he fouled the man.

“A lot of referee’s would have sent him off but I wouldn’t like to see a player sent-off to be honest.

“The boys a young boy, give him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t want to encourage a young kid to be sent-off.

“We still had our chances to win it. I wouldn’t blame that for the reason we lost it.”

This equaliser left Wealdstone shell-shocked and Pursglove squandered an excellent chance to win the game, one-on-one with the goalkeeper as the hosts’ dominated.

“And then at four-all, I think we was in control of the game,” said Cosgrove. “A lot of good chances near the end, we hit the post, (Lee) Morgan’s missed a header from six-yards.

“On another day we was unlucky not to nick it. I think we deserved, in the second half enough pressure, to nick it but it was tight, it was going to go either way. It’s just unfortunate we’ve come second tonight.”

But Wealdstone striker Peter Dean saved their blushes, breaking the Deres hearts when he completed his hat-trick in the 89^th minute, although the Kent side twice hit the woodwork late on through Johnson and substitute Ashley Dunkley.

Attention now turns to the visit of Deal Town on Saturday - and Cosgrove urges fans’ to flock through the turnstiles for entertainment and gung-ho action.

“I’m a poor man’s Kevin Keegan,” he said.

“My idea of a game of football is to outscore the other side. I like to play attractive football, attacking football and don’t get me wrong, I know how to defend as well.

“We had 600 odd minutes unbeaten at the back last year so we know how to defend but attacking’s my first priority at the moment and playing good football.”

Despite being 13 points behind leaders VCD Athletic, when asked if this brand of football can win the club the Kent League table, Cosgrove replied: “We’ll have to wait and see!

“It’s a tight league. We’d probably be a better team if we went up the league’s because in this league the thing that does stop us obviously, is a lot of teams will go out and stop us.

“Sometimes you get bogged down but we’ll keep to our football, that’s my football. That’s my motto, keep playing the football, keep attacking and we’ll see where it gets us at the end.”

Having already lost star midfielder Adrian Deane to Blue Square South outfit Braintree Town, Cosgrove is expecting to lose more players to club’s ready to prise his young talent away.

Remember that Charlton Athletic striker Chris Dickson starred for the Deres before Dulwich Hamlet prised him away from Park View Road, before earning a move to The Valley and hitting the target on a regular basis whilst on loan with Gillingham before Christmas.

Cosgrove said: “We’ve just lost Adrian Deane to Braintree and that’s the problem that we’re going to be losing players to a higher level.

“But at this level that’s the problem you get but it just shows we are bringing the players’ through.

“They’re getting looked at by other teams so it shows we are doing our job with the youngsters, which is a good thing.

“If we’re losing them to higher teams that’s part of football, I’m sorry to say at this level.”

Only 73 fans watched tonight’s London Senior Cup thriller, and Cosgrove believes more fans will watch the Deal Town game at the weekend.

“That’s what we’re trying to build on,” he said. “We’re trying to entertain the people, bring the crowds back at the same time.

“They get their money’s worth down here, don’t they?

“It’s an entertaining side. We’re a different team to the league but that’s the way I play and I’m glad I can achieve playing this sort of football with the players at this level we’ve got.

“Our style of play is to give them plenty of encouragement and plenty of enthusiasm and we like to keep the ball on the ground.

“I like to play football, I like to entertain and I like to try and score goals. Obviously there’s games in this league where you have to take your one-nil’s but if we can, we’ll play our football to entertain.

“And we’ll bring the crowds in and hopefully move up the league’s, that’s our ambition.

“It’s a hard job but that’s what we’re aiming at. It’s going to be hard but hopefully we’ve had our bad run, injuries and suspensions and bad luck.

“If we get the rub of the green and VCD maybe have a bad run, who knows?

“We’re not favourites at the moment. We’ve got an uphill battle but we’ll be there at the end, kicking and fighting.

“There’s so much quality and spirit in this team we’ve got to be there.”

When asked when his next clean-sheet will arrive, Cosgrove, who laughed, added: “Good question!” But he said: “I want to win the games. I don’t play for clean-sheets.

“My ambition before the game is to win the game. That is how I play to win the game.

“If they score three we will score four or more. Clean sheets are great and sometimes in games you will have to keep a clean-sheet and nick goals but that’s my style of play and that won’t change me.”

Visit Erith & Belvedere’s website:  www.erithandbelvederefc.co.uk


Erith & Belvedere v Deal Town
Kent League Premier Division
Saturday 19^th January 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY