Lewisham Borough FA Vase debut: It’s an absolute massive game, says head coach Ebun Thomas

LEWISHAM BOROUGH head coach Ebun Thomas says he is looking forward to making the clubs FA Vase debut on Sunday.

 

Thomas guided the club to the heady heights of thirteenth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table after holding Forest Hill Park to a 1-1 draw in the Ladywell Arena derby on Monday night.

Lewisham Borough grabbed the lead against the run of play when striker Jay Jones slotted his shot into the bottom corner after Tim Moffatt headed on a big kick from keeper Alexander Kibby after 23 minutes.

Forest Hill Park missed numerous chances during the game and they deserved to level with seven minutes of the game remaining, but substitute Liam Wright appeared to be in an offside position before poking the ball into the net following a corner.

Lewisham Borough travel to Bedfont to play FC Deportivo Galicia in The Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round on Sunday.

The hosts play at the same level as Lewisham Borough and are presently in the top-eight in the Combined Counties League First Division table with nine points from their opening five league outings.

“I think a lot of credit needs to go to our chairman Ray Simpson in this one,” said Thomas.

“I know he gets a lot of bad press from other people on the outside, who don’t know. It would be easy just to go ‘we don’t deserve it’, but we’ve shown that we can be competitive and I fully expect that to be in the Vase and then hey, who knows?

“It’s an absolute massive game. I grew up watching The FA Cup and everyone’s dream as a manager, we want to get there.”

Hinting that he was talking about getting to Wembley Stadium for the Final, Thomas added: “Now, it’s a big ask. We’ll take one game at a time, but if we do, believe you me I’ll be the first one to celebrate that achievement and it shows where the club’s been.

“Listen, anything’s possible. It’s eleven-versus-eleven on the day.  No one really gave us a chance.  Over the past couple of years, yes we haven’t been great on the field but then hopefully we’ve shown do you know what, with a little bit of preparation, there’s a great bunch of lads in there, why can’t we? Why can’t we?”

Thomas then added:  Why can’t we go as far as we can go and that starts on Sunday an then we’ll take it from there.”

FC Deportivo Galicia  v  Lewisham Borough
The Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Sunday 10 September 2017
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Bedfont Sports FC, Hatton Road, Bedfont, Middlesex TW14 9JR