We are in eighth position and eighth place really is in our hands, says Forest Hill Park boss Lee Roots

FOREST HILL PARK manager Lee Roots says his side have met the targets that they have been set.

The Ladywell Arena based outfit are in eighth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table with 30 points from their 20 games and have 14 league games left to play.

Roots’ men welcome Greenways to Ladywell Arena tomorrow, a side that are playing at this level for the first time in their history and sit in tenth-place with 27 points from their 22 league outings.

“This game is a replay of the fixture from earlier in the season that was unfortunately postponed at half time with the scores at 0–0, due to bad weather," said former Holmesdale boss Roots.

“This will be the first meeting between the two clubs at this level and with three points up for grabs, we will be looking to take the points and continue our good current home form.

“This season taking over as manager, alongside my management team of Adam Porter and Peter Nolan, just before the start pre-season, we was quick to set our goals in manageable segments of where we wanted to be, at certain points of the season and we feel we have achieved our first half of the season goals that was set.

“In regards to on the pitch and our cup campaigns, we went on to reach the second qualifying round of the FA Vase for the first time in the clubs history, losing narrowly by one goal to Redhill in extra time.

“We reached the fourth round of the Challenge Cup, again only losing in extra time but this time to big spenders Chatham Town from the Premier Division, in what was a very tight and even game, where we felt unlucky on the night to have not progressed and claimed a huge win for the club.

“We are currently through to the semi-final of the FA London Hospital Cup versus Erith and Belvedere, which takes place on Tuesday 5th March 2019, so we feel we have given a really good account of ourselves in all competitions and are still playing to win a trophy.

“In regards to our league campaign, we are delighted to be right in the mix come the middle of February, to be in position to be able to finish within the top six places of the league and for a club who finished 14th last season and who have never finished above 12th at this level, this is massive progress for the club on the pitch.

“Of course, we would have liked to have banked more points at this stage than we have.  There has been games where we have played excellent and lost and there has been games where we have not played as well and won and the league table does not lie when you reach this stage of a season.

“We are in eighth position and eighth place really is in our hands as we currently hold more points and hold more games on hands than every side below us.

“This season, we’ve already equalled the clubs total amounts of league win this from last season and with 13 league games still to go. We’re on a run of four straight wins in our last four homes games and have only lost four games away all season over 90 minutes.

“Off the pitch, our presence and work within the community has begun to reach a greater audience and we’ve noticeably seen more support at home and away games, which again is great for everyone involved at the club.

“We’ve been also fortunate to be able welcome and work with some brand new sponsors this season, local and national based business’s which is fantastic progress for the club off the pitch, something that we are always looking to improve on.

“We have two home games coming up now this week, tomorrow’s game and on Wednesday evening against Phoenix Sports Reserves and we warmly welcome anyone to come down to support the team and enjoy some non-league real football.”

Forest Hill Park  v  Greenways
Southern Counties East Football League First Division
Saturday 23 February 2019
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Ladywell Arena, Silvermere Road, Catford, London SE6 4QX