My philosophy is that it is our jobs to coach these lads to become better. If they don’t, then we have not done our job, says Fleetdown United manager Martin McCarthy

FLEETDOWN UNITED manager Martin McCarthy says the club’s turnaround in their fortunes has been down to coaching players within the Dartford-based club.

The club sealed a 1-0 home win over Erith 147 Sports last Saturday, which extended their unbeaten run to nine games (including seven wins) for the first time in their history.

They have climbed up to sixth-place in the Andreas Carter Joma Kent County League Premier Division table.

In recent seasons, the Lower Heath Lane outfit have hovered and flirted with relegation since becoming a Premier Division club four seasons ago.

However, in the past 18 months the have finished a credible ninth-place and look to improve on that in McCarthy’s second season in charge of the club.

“It’s only slightly to do with the management team, in fact it’s 99% down to the players at the club really,” said McCarthy.

“Yes, it’s true that when we came in from the first training session, our ethos was to coach the players to the best of their abilities first and that only if we needed too, would we try and bring in others.

“However, unlike others whose easy option is to bring in better standard players, that don’t need coaching for our league, would this really be enjoyment?

“My management team including Keiron Rocke and Steve Sales have been great for me and have supported me brilliantly.  They both deserve the credit also as I’ve said it before and I’ll state it again, we have a management team at the club of seven people; organising all three sides and by supporting my structure has meant that we as a club now have the respect of all players looking to reach the highest standard of football they can, well I hope so anyway!

“We’ve played against successful sides this year whose players seem to ignore instructions from the side or only play it seems due to the potentials of presumed success, yet we have tried to assemble players based on developing their real potential.

“People often become flippant with remarks on players when they have never really coached them to see if they can become better.

“My philosophy is that it is our jobs to coach these lads to become better.  If they don’t, then we have not done our job.

“We give respect to all of our players and in return we expect it from all 50 plus players that have signed on for the club.  So far, we have used lots of players in our first team squad, including several reserves and third team players so that eventually they strive to reach the first team definitely and only then do we have a football club and not several football teams.”

Fleetdown United host Borden Village on Saturday (2:45pm), a side that are in fifth-place in the table and like Fleetdown have bagged 52 points this season.