Having taken over and seen what the boys can do now, we’re aiming for a top four, a top five finish, the higher the better, but we want to be in that top five, says FC Elmstead boss Marc Bentz

FC ELMSTEAD manager Marc Bentz says he is targeting for a top five finish this season.

The club lost their third game in 10 since Bentz took over from Fabio Rossi (who moved upstairs), a 3-1 home defeat to league leaders K Sports on Friday night.

FC Elmstead slipped down a couple of places into sixth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table, having collected 24 points from 15 games, now 16 points adrift of the leaders.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve turned things around, it’s the same group of players here,” said Bentz.

“There’s four or five additions that we’ve made as a management team to try to strengthen key areas, giving a little bit more structure and organisation and playing to their strengths is all we’ve done.

“The boys have been fantastic and done really well, welcoming from day one. They’ve taken everything on board and give everything a try, so I’m very happy.”

Attention now turns to next Saturday’s London Senior Trophy Second Round tie against Stonewall.

They are in ninth-place (of 14) in the Middlesex County League Premier Division table and the Elmstead boss said: “We go down to south-west London to Barnes. It’s the Cup we want to go for so we’ve really got to go there forgetting about our defeat to K Sports and putting it behind us and try to get something from it.

“We’ve given the boys a monthly target and we need them to win that to hit the target and move us forward because really in this league you’re only playing for first or second place, other than that it doesn’t really matter, so it would be nice to have a good Cup run and that’s the Cup we’re looking at to do that.”

When asked what his aspirations are for the League campaign, Bentz who watched Friday’s game inside the dug-out while his assistants Ricky Tompkins and Rob Curtis barked out instructions from the side-lines, replied: “When we took over we had a brief chat then saying the goals were to try to qualify for The FA Cup so top eight, 1.65 points per game on average.

“Having taken over and seen what the boys can do now, we’re aiming for a top four, a top five finish, the higher the better, but we want to be in that top five.

“We really want to be in the top of the pile of the also-rans, so third or fourth.  You’ve got the teams that have got the budgets and we haven’t got a budget so it would be good to be at the top of that pile, the group of teams that haven’t got the budgets.”

Stonewall  v  FC Elmstead
London Senior Trophy Second Round
Saturday 25 November 2017
Kick Off 1:30pm
at Barn Elms Playing Fields, Queen Elizabeth Walk, London, SW13 9SA