Kentish Football 
Rivals lock horns for "more important" league clash - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
Erith & Belvedere and Faversham Town lock horns for the second time this week, writes Stephen McCartney.
The two sides met in the Kent League Cup on Tuesday night with the Deres winning 2-0 at Park View Road, courtesy of goals from Mark Nougher and Daryl Wilson.
The Deres third successive victory in the competition sees them leapfrog over the Lilywhites into top spot in group B, on the night which saw Deal Town and Sevenoaks Town eliminated from the tournament.
All attention now turns to Saturday’s vital Kent League club at Park View Road as both clubs aim to climb the table.
“We should have won five or six nil but that’s only the first leg,” Deres joint-manager Paul Gorman said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.
He added: “That’s only the first leg (of the double header). We’ve got them on Saturday in the league and we have to get three points.”
The Park View Road faithful showed distain towards the appointment of Gorman, Chris Cosgrove and Gary Davies, but results have won over the supporters.
The team have kept five clean sheets from their first seven games under their leadership, but promotion into the Ryman League is their ultimate aim.
But they have to claw back fifteen points from current leaders Thamesmead Town.
“We’ve got a good bunch of boys,” said Gorman. “They work hard for me, which is good - I just want it to continue.
“The league is more important,” he insisted. “I want them to get back up that league.
“It was nice to win at Slade Green last Saturday but it would be nice to win (against Faversham again),
Faversham Town boss Terry Cordice, however, feels his side will bounce back on Saturday, having to settle for runners-up to the Deres in the Kent League Cup.
He said: “We played them a couple of weeks ago in the cup and we played a largely experimental side with youth and reserve team players.
“Tonight (Tuesday) we were not far off full-strength. I didn’t feel we performed first half but certainly second half when we went down to ten men we made Erith work and I thought it was a little bit unfortunate not to nick a draw out of it.”
The Lilywhites had to play the entire second half with ten men after their skipper, Mark Smith was shown his second yellow card inside first half stoppage time.
“Hopefully we can take our second half performance into Saturday’s game and give them a good game,” said Cordice.
Cordice wants his side to rediscover their early season form in a bid to climb up the table.
He said: “We’re looking at a lot of the sides and apart from the top three or four sides all the others are much of a muchness.
“We’ve had a good start but at the moment we’re having a little bit of a sticky spell but if we can put two or three wins together, back to back wins in the league, it puts back up the table again.
“We’ve had our little bit of a blip, let’s just hope we can go on another run - hopefully starting this Saturday.”
Cordice, however, demands more worth ethic from his side.
“A lot of people say “the bubbles burst” but I don’t think it’s that but some of the lads have to realise they’ve got to work hard in every game.”
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Erith & Belvedere v Faversham Town
Kent League
Saturday 9th December 2006
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd