Kentish Football 
Ford blasts club for lack of support ahead of big FA Vase clash - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Off-the-field issues were partly to blame for VCD Athletic’s FA Vase exit yesterday, writes Stephen McCartney.
Western League side Bideford’s workmanlike performance during their 3-2 win at The Oakwood earned them a quarter-final trip to Billingham Synthonia - but Vickers boss Martin Ford admitted that his preparation for the club’s biggest game of the season was not as good as he would have liked.
Ford didn’t want to explain the situation within the club, but messages on a fans’ forum in the week leading up to the big game was concentrating on bar issues rather than matters on the pitch.
“There’s a lot to sort out behind the scenes,” a disappointed Ford revealed EXCLUSIVLEY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after their poor showing.
“I just felt the way I’ve been treated this week by the club has been an absolute disgrace - not the football club I may add.
“’I’ve got full support of everybody at the football section but the way I’ve been treated by certain people in the (social) club has been an absolute disgrace.
“I think the timing of it before a FA Vase game was absolutely diabolical and to be honest with you I found it hard to concentrate on today’s game.
“Once I’m here, training Tuesday and Thursday and it’s football, and today, they’ve got my 90 minutes commitment but it’s been really hard to focus my mind on different things that’s been going on at the club this week.
“At the moment there’s some people at the club running it very amateurishly.”
Maybe the negative comments written on the fans’ forum affected team morale as the side took 70 minutes to get going when Ford made a double substitution.
They found themselves 2-0 down to a “poor side” according to Ford and two late goals from Leroy Huggins and Mark Greatorex, when the team woke up from their depression, were sadly not enough.
VCD Athletic’s game at Cockfosters was called off due to a waterlogged pitch last Tuesday night - only to be kicked out of the competition later in the week.
“Apparently it was for a fine that wasn’t paid,” explained Ford. “We’re saying we’ve paid it (but the) London FA have said we’ve not paid I so I leave the people to sort that out.
“I have enough worries in the club at the moment. I need to pick the players up again, that’s my job, that’s what I’m good at and go again against Whitstable because the lads in there still think they’ve got a very good chance.
“They’ve said if we can’t go to Wembley the we’ll go to the Ryman.”
Following Whitstable Town’s 4-1 win over Tunbridge Wells yesterday, Marc Seager’s side are now unbeaten in 21 Kent League games and they are on course for promotion into the Ryman League for the very first time in their history.
VCD, meanwhile, are in third place, with two games in hand, but are sixteen points behind and will need the Oystermen to self-destruct during their last eleven outings to stand a chance of clinching top spot.
But Ford is looking forward to their showdown at The Belmont next Saturday.
“It’s not been a very good week for Martin Ford personally wise, but I’ve got big shoulders and I’ll bounce back,” he vowed.
“The changing room’s down and it will be down for a little while but we couldn’t have a bigger game to come back and play next Saturday.
“We’ve got a week off, which makes a nice change, we’ll train again and we’ll look forward to Whitstable.
“If we react as half as well as we done last year when we were in the last sixteen of the Vase against Cammell Laird when we lost, we got into another cup final and finished strongly in the league - I’m looking for the players to bounce back.”
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