Our efforts have taken their toll, admits Seager

WHITSTABLE TOWN boss Marc Seager says yesterday’s game against Metropolitan Police was just “one game too far” for his tired players, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Oystermen have climbed away from the Ryman League Division One South relegation zone in recent weeks, having picked up thirteen points from their last five games - but were brought back down to earth with a 3-0 home defeat to Metropolitan Police.

But their form in recent weeks has enabled the KRBS Belmont outfit to move ten points clear of the drop zone with 36 points and Seager, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday evening, says retaining their Ryman League status remains their number one priority.

“Three-nil totally flattered them, we didn’t deserve to lose 3-0,” said Seager.

“I thought Met Police deserved it on the day, I thought they were big and strong and the fact that they never had a game during midweek helped.

“My boys have had a lot of games in a short space of time and it was one game too far for them today.”

Whitstable had remained undefeated against Leatherhead (2-1), Corinthian-Casuals (3-2), Burgess Hill Town (5-0) and Whyteleafe (0-0) and admitted last Tuesday’s 4-1 win over promotion chasing Ashford Town took it’s toll.

“We’ve had big games, big six-pointers in that period and we’ve come through that with flying colours,” said Seager.

“Tuesday night (against Ashford) was on a very, very heavy pitch, we’ve worked ever so hard. The boys just looked a little bit heavy legged today.

“Three-nil totally flattered Met Police. Three-nil looks a comfortable win, it was never that, but we move on.

“I’m over the moon with my boys. I’m proud of my boys, I think they’ve worked ever so hard, it’s just one game too far for us at the end of the day.”

With ten games remaining, Seager has challenged his side to better last season’s debut campaign at this level, when they bagged 50 points to finish in fourteenth place.

“I’ve never lost sign of where we’re at and by the means I’ve got to work with,” said Seager.

“I think we’ve underachieved this year with the strength of the side we’ve got.

“At the moment, we’re involved in our own min-league and I think we’re top of that mini-league. I think we can play the way we have over the next ten games then we’ll be finishing higher than thirteenth.

“But the main thing is securing Ryman League status and the run we’ve been on has gone a long way of securing that.”

Seager takes his side to doomed basement boys Crowborough Athletic next weekend, but before that Whitstable welcome Blue Square Premier side Ebbsfleet United in the quarter-finals of the Kent Senior Cup on Wednesday night.

With the Fleet welcoming Welsh giants Wrexham in the FA Carlsberg Trophy quarter-final replay just 24-hours earlier, Fleet boss Liam Daish is expected to field a weakened side.

The Fleet are holders of both competitions, and comfortably defeated Cray Wanderers 4-0 in last season’s Kent Senior Cup - the final played last July due to fixture congestion en-route to their Wembley glory.

And Seager is expected to make enforced changes himself as he sees Saturday’s trip to Crowborough to be more important than a county cup competition that has lost it’s gloss in recent years.

When asked if his side can cause a cup upset against Ebbsfleet United, Seager replied, “No, not to be honest. We’ll go and enjoy it. Even with them bringing down a young side, they’re still good players, they’re full-time and it’s going to be a tough game for us.

“I’ve got Crowborough next Saturday and that’s more important to me. I’ve got a few players carrying injuries and they’ll be rested (against Ebbsfleet).

“I’ve got a few tired players, they’ve been playing a lot of football and they will be earning themselves a well earned rest.

“Three points at Crowborough are more important.”

Crowborough, meanwhile, are finding life as a Ryman League club different to their recent rise up the Sussex County League, losing their last SIXTEEN league games.

The East Sussex side are rooted to the foot of the table, having collected three wins and three draws in 30 games and are seventeen points adrift of safety.

And Seager sees this game as a good chance of picking up another three crucial points.

“To be honest with you Crowborough are out of the picture,” he said. “It’s always hard the first season, as we know. The ones we’ve got to be worried about are the teams in and around us.

“We’ve got a ten point lead with ten games to go. It’s a massive gap. Teams have got to win four of those games to get in front of us. We will take a lot more points in the last ten games.

“I just want to try and beat the 50 points that we got last year. Just as long as we’ve got enough points and we’re still playing Ryman League football that’s important for us.”

With Sam Denly suspended for the visit of the Fleet, Seager reminded Daish that his side did knock out Tonbridge Angels on penalties in the last round.

“Ebbsfleet are a full-time team, it will be a tough game for us, but we’ll be going out there giving it our best shot and who knows, you never know what can happen in football,” he said.

“We were under a lot of pressure for 120 minutes against Tonbridge and sneaked through on penalties.

“I don’t know who I’m going to rest, we’ve got too many injuries to mention. It’s going to be tough for us, but everyone wants to play in the big games and everyone wants to play against Ebbsfleet.

Visit Whitstable Town’s website: www.whitstabletownfc.co.uk

Visit Ebbsfleet United’s website: www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk

Whitstable Town v Ebbsfleet United
Kent Senior Cup Quarter-Final
Wednesday 25^th February 2009
Kick Off 7:45pm
At KRBS Belmont, Belmont Road, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1QP