I'd love to have given it a crack and tested ourselves, says Hildenborough boss Andrew MaKechnie

Sunday 28th July 2013

HILDENBOROUGH ATHLETIC manager Andrew McKechnie says he feels gutted that his conquering side could not take their place in the Kent Invicta League this season.

The Tonbridge based club clinched the Haart of Kent County League Premier Division title by one point after Metrogas went down to a 2-1 defeat to Fleet Leisure on a dramatic final day of the season.

Metrogas needed to avoid defeat against Lee Richmond’s side, but Sean O’Sullivan’s goal was not enough for Roy Davies’ side.

Fleet Leisure, who finished in fourth-place, nine points adrift of Hildenborough Athletic, grabbed promotion into the Kent Invicta League due to their groundshare agreement at Rochester United.

McKechnie, 29, who revealed that he had to switch his telephone off on the final day of the season because the tension got the better of him, reflected on his successful spell at the club.

He said: “It’s now six years I’ve done it, we’ve won six leagues in a row with other cups. We’ve gone up a league every year and six years’ ago we were in the Sevenoaks & District League Division One!

“We’ve gone up incredibly fast on the field and we’re catching up off the field doing bits and pieces.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t go up. The ground wasn’t up to the standard but we’ve got some fantastic players.”

Reflecting on last season’s title winning campaign, McKechnie said: “It was a strange season because some games we were good and some games you would’ve watched us and gone those boys look like they could be pushing for the league and others we dropped the standard and we weren’t quite good enough.

“But what we’ve instilled in the last six years, we know how to win games. We learnt how to dig in and a few of our games last year we’ve won by a goal.”

McKechnie would have relished the opportunity to manage in the Kent Invicta League this season.

“We would’ve loved it, to give it a crack,” he said. “Off-the-field does need to catch up a bit. There’s a lot of people who do a lot of hard work to get it up to that level, like all the players pay for everything, they pay their subs, for their own training gear.

“Rusthall have a good set-up now. They’ve worked really hard over the last five years and this is what we’re aiming for.

“I’d love to have given it a crack and tested ourselves.”

When asked if Hildenborough Athletic can secure the league title again at the end of this season, McKechnie said: “We’ve finished above some top teams last year. I don’t see why not. We have a good squad and we have some good players but I don’t think we went out thinking we were going to win the league. It was about getting into that league settling ourselves, doing what we do and we came to the end of the season and we’ve done it by a point.

“We’ll give it a good go. There’s a lot of teams working on things and there’s going to be a lot of strong teams this year.”

McKechnie revealed the club are looking to secure a groundshare agreement to ensure that the club can clinch promotion into the Kent Invicta League if they replicate last season’s success.

Yesterday Hildenborough Athletic thrashed Rusthall 4-1 at Jockey Farm and play an eye-catching brand of good football and would definitely hold their own at Step Six if given the chance.

“We need to move,” insisted McKechnie. “Don’t get me wrong the facilities and the pitch is well looked after. It’s a nice little place but to go up to the next league we need the extra facilities and we won’t get that where we are at the moment.

“We’ve had a couple of initial talks with clubs and they started well and with it being the off season they’ve kind of stopped. We’ll carry on talking to people and see what we can do.

“Mark Stratton (club secretary) does a lot of good work. A lot of on-the-field wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for that man!

“We wouldn’t have said six years’ ago when we were in Division One of the Sevenoaks & District League we’d win the Kent County Premier. It’s a ridiculous thought, so you never know what’s going to happen in the next 12 months either.”

Visit Hildenborough Athletic’s website: www.hildenboroughafc.co.uk