Logsdon demands a change in Sevenoaks' fortunes - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

Thursday 20th April 2006

A crowd of at least 500 fans will be flocking to Greatness Park on Saturday to wave goodbye to Maidstone United in what is expected to be their last Kent League game before their promotion into the Ryman League – but Sevenoaks Town will be looking forward to better times next season, writes Stephen McCartney.

Sevenoaks have endured a totally miserable time during their third campaign in the league and will finish bottom of the Kentish Observer League on 14 points, in which they’ve won only three league games and scored just 18 goals.

Managers have come and go in the past two years and top scorer, with just five goals, James Dalton scored two of their three goals – the first time they’ve scored that amount in league action this season – in their embarrassing draw against a VCD Athletic side that contained a mixture of kids and reserves last night.

“It’s been very disappointing,” admitted Graham Logsdon, their club general manager, last night.

”I think the midseason problems we’ve had with the management side we obviously had to address it.

“The two guys that are here currently came in at a difficult time in the season, towards the back end. It’s always difficult to attract players when you’re in the basement anyway but it’s a question really of seeing this year out. It’s been very disappointing for the club.”

The first team squad are currently managed by former Dartford coaches Bob Pittaway and Derek Moore.

But Logsdon was in charge for their first season in the Kent League when they finished in a respectable eleventh place. Last season they finished one place lower but this season has a total disaster.

John James, Julian Leigh, Gary Davies, John Adams, Pittaway and Moore have all been in charge of the club in the past two season’s but Logsdon admitted the current duo will remain in charge for the start of next season – but they have to work had during the close season to improve matters or face the sack.

”They’ve got ideas and views about next season,” he said. “We’ll have to work and they’ll have to work hard to attract the right calibre of player that I would want to expect to come and play for Sevenoaks Town.”

Logsdon described the type of player he wants at the club. “A player that will enable us to finish in the top half, possibly the top half dozen. We don’t expect to win it as we don’t have the finance to pay the salaries like some of the club’s have got. We can certainly finish in the top half next season.”

Logsdon will consider switching their midweek date to improve on their attendance figures next season – but we all know people will only watch a winning team and not a struggling one.

”They know what they’ve got to do. We’ve already discussed it and they’re quite happy at this point in time,” he said.

”They’ll get the players they want but they realise there’s got to be a little bit of a clearout. That’s inevitable and necessary I feel and let’s hope pre-season the standard of player we get in is of a higher standard.”

Last season the club increased the capacity of it’s clubhouse but neglected the playing surface, which caused concern to Bromley, Tonbridge Angels and Lewes when they played pre-season friendlies at Greatness Park.

But during the close season the club are spending £8,000 to get the pitch up to Kent League standard.

”We’re spending upwards of £8,000 on the ground this year,” revealed Logsdon.

“It’s always been a thorn in my side because I feel we need to get it up to Kent League standard. It’s a nice environment, a good pitch in some respects but we need to get the playing surface and improve it.”

Logsdon, though, is relishing the prospect of a very lucrative day when Maidstone United visit on Saturday – but admitted it will be a financial burden to lose them.

“I think Maidstone should be at a higher level than they are,” he said. “They were unfortunate I think to go through the trauma a few years ago and have to start to rebuild.

”They are the county town, they should be playing at a higher level as far as I’m concerned.

“I think the amount of work Mr Bowden-Brown has put in and others within the club, the effort and the money that’s been spent, they deserve their rewards.”

He added: “I’m told we need to expect something around 500. We’re ready for it. We’ve done the work behind the scenes.

”I think all clubs would be affected by Maidstone getting promotion, which is the minus side. Maidstone aren’t interested in that, their interested in moving on and quite rightly so in my opinion.”

Sevenoaks Town were a successful club during their Kent County League days but Logsdon admits their a small club playing in the Kent League. But the club has come a long way in the past five years and having spent around £100,000 to get their Greatness Park up to Kent League standard, Logsdon wants the club to progress.

The club has a neat compact ground that with a bit of work could stage Ryman League football and owns it’s own second pitch, which can be used for training and matches.

“We’ve got the infrastructure here,” he said. “We’ve had to do a lot of work and we’ve had to spend a lot of money. I would suggest this move up has got us in the region of about £90-100,000.

“People might think it’s a strange thing to say but I think even at this level we have to view it and run it on a business basis.

“It’s not a Kent County League scenario anymore and I don’t mean that in any disrespect to that league because we enjoyed many good years with them but this level you have to try and look after the pennies and it has to be done on a business basis.”

But Logsdon admitted he is fighting a losing battle as football isn’t very popular in the town and when the team keeps losing – they haven’t won a game since 7th January – that tells it’s own story.

He said: “It’s very difficult. Like a lot of clubs we’ve got a nucleus of about seven or eight people that work very hard behind the scenes.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it again Sevenoaks is not a footballing town, it’s the other shape ball and along with hockey but we have a good loyal sponsorship in my opinion. We don’t have a major sponsor as such, we have a lot of sponsors who pay a reasonable amount of money to us.

”And if we don’t get it in actual finance we actually get it in terms of equipment or what we need to run the club on a day to day basis.”

Logsdon did reveal the club is solvent but they’ll need to sit down during the close season to decide where they need to go from here. Remember you get what you pay for.

“We’re solvent, we’ve always have been apart from a short period when we were let down by the Foundation in terms of the floodlights when we had a shortfall of something in the region of £20,000 but we paid that off within one season and a half.

”We’re solvent and we will be solvent at the end of the season. But we’re not the sort of club to go and throw money at players.

”I think there’s a lot of mercenary players out there. Once the money dries up they move on elsewhere and pick up the brown envelope wherever they can.

”I’d like to think players that come to this club – I took the players up from the Kent County League into this league and the first season in the Kent League nobody got paid. It’s not all about money it’s about other things I think.

”We have a budget here, we stick to that budget. We actually withdrew the budget towards the end of the season as we said we would only pay it on results – so that’s why we’re solvent!!!”

What does the future hold for the club? “We’re here for the long haul. We don’t intend to be relegated. I don’t think we’re in a position at this stage to take that next step up but I’d like to think we are a reasonable Kent League standard side.

“We’ve got planning permission in shortly for the dressing rooms to replace the portacabins but that’s a long way off.

”But we’ve got things in the pipeline but as an ex-manager I want a footballing side, as the flagship of the club, that will go out there and be a regular contender for top spots, certainly in the top half.

”We’ve had a successful period from Kent County League upwards. I was disappointed with eleventh position as I felt we could have done better in the first season.

”That’s what makes this season even more disappointing. You have to deal with it, we will deal with it and we’ll bounce back.”

Joint-manager Pittaway, who came to the club in November, promises wholesale changes to his playing staff.

He added: “We’ll have to bring in new players don’t we? We haven’t had the opportunity really since we’ve taken over because players are settled at clubs but we’ll bring in a lot of new players in the summer.

”I think the club were so far behind that it needed a complete rebuilding and we couldn’t get the players in.

”It’s got to be done in the pre-season and then we’re answerable for our own actions next year.”

Sevenoaks Town v Maidstone United
Kentish Observer League
Saturday 22nd April 2006
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks