I am committed to the Stones, says boss Peter Nott

Sunday 10th October 2010

MAIDSTONE UNITED boss Peter Nott has admitted for the first time that he’s beginning to feel the pressure as the Stones stuttering start to the season continued at the weekend and as they prepare to face the holders in the Championship Manager Ryman League Cup on Tuesday night when Leatherhead travel to Homelands, writes Mike Green.

In an interview with www.kentishfootball.co.uk, the Stones boss after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Aveley in the first game since ownership of the club changed, Nott was honest enough to admit that, “Without a doubt my job is on the line. At whatever level that you’re managing at if your team is at the bottom of the league you’re going to feel under pressure.

“But if I’m honest I’ve felt like I’ve been under pressure from day one when I was appointed in February. I was an appointment from within the club and with there being a lot of managers available from above this level at the moment, I do feel pressure,” the Stones boss said.

“But one thing I will say is that I’ve lived in Maidstone a long time and am fully committed to the club – I don’t think they’d find a more honest hard working manager but I get judged by my results and my results are poor.

“We did the job that we had to do last season and stayed up, but certainly this year the results have been poor with all the financial difficulties that we’ve had.

“We’ve encountered that again this season with players not being paid, and there’s been a lot of stuff outside of the dressing room that we’ve had to hold together, but at the end of the day my job is to get a team that picks up points for Maidstone United.

“We knew the budget and with all the problems that we had past year, we knew that we wouldn’t be up there challenging but I wouldn’t have taken the job on with a reduced budget this year if I thought that we couldn’t have got a top half finish.

“We’ve started off terribly and now its down to see some of the characters that have come back to help us through it. Its just the case now to see whether we’ll be given the time to show that we can all dig in as a group and get the results that we need.”

With the club losing early on in the FA Cup, Maidstone missed out on some much needed prize money and that point too wasn’t lost on the boss.

Nott said: “We didn’t get the money that the club needed from the Cup and so we need a run in the FA Trophy that starts next weekend.”

The Stones welcome Ryman League Division One South side Burgess Hill Town to Homelands for a FA Carlsberg Trophy First Qualifying Round tie on Saturday.

Nott said: “There are no easy games especially against lower division opponents as we’ve proved this season, but there’s a pot of gold at the end of next Saturday’s game in the prize money, and with the new owners investing a lot of money into the club, they’ll be looking for a return and a few bob through the gate.

“We’re desperate to have a run for the supporters who in fairness with the results that we’ve had could have turned on us but they haven’t! They’ve been very supportive and understand some of the problems that we’ve had – we want to do it for them, and I’m sure that if we keep plugging away, it will come.”

Before then however comes the little matter of hosting the holders in the First Round of the Championship Manager Cup on Tuesday night.

“Leatherhead are having a great run at the moment – scoring for fun as Saturday proved (the Tanners won 11-0 – that’s ELEVEN NIL – at Horsham YMCA) but we’re going to take it seriously,” he promised.

“We picked up a couple of injuries at the weekend and a couple of players will be rested but we need a win. But the game does give us a chance to have a look at a couple of players and I’ll take that opportunity to do that but that doesn’t mean that we’re not taking the competition seriously – I need to get these boys into a winning mentality and I don’t really care where the win comes from at the moment. We need to get on that winning streak.

“We had some big players come back at the weekend but we also had Tommy Parkinson pick up an injury; we had Ryan Andrews pick up an injury and we’ve got to nurse Jermaine Darlington as he’s at a tender age and he’s got a knee injury so those three players will probably be rested up.

“Anyone who is fit enough will play a part in the game on Tuesday night – we’ll have a full squad down and anyone who is not in the 16 will train. There’s a good togetherness in this team and I really did feel for the boys on Saturday – we needed that slice of luck and it just didn’t come. We were close to getting the points and even after Danny (Hockton) got sent off I though we could have taken the points but we’ll just keep plugging away and hopefully we’ll be given the time that we need to get us through this bit.

“Saturday was the first time this season that I’ve had to leave players out of the squad, and we haven’t had to dig not only into the reserves but the under 18s as well. Now we’ve got to find a way to keep the players here with the new budget and that I’m sure will be an interesting conversation that we have with the new owners.”

Visit Maidstone United’s website: www.maidstoneunited.co.uk

Maidstone United v Leatherhead

Championship Manager Cup Second Round

Tuesday 12th October 2010

Kick Off 7:45pm

At Homelands Stadium, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ