Robbins' confident for lengthy Vase away day

TUNBRIDGE WELLS boss Mike Robbins is confident his side can embark on a lengthy run in this season’s FA Carlsberg Vase competition, writes Stephen McCartney.

Robbins’ high-flying Bulmers Cider Kent League outfit make the 264-mile round trip to tackle a Christchurch side that are sitting in seventh place in the Sydenhams Wessex League.

The Dorset outfit have won seven and drawn four of their 15 league games so far and came away from Lymington with a 3-0 win last night - although they’re 20 points adrift of the leaders.

But Tunbridge Wells are enjoying their best season for many a year and are presently involved in a title race, just two points behind Holmesdale in second place, although they’ve got a game in hand over the Bromley side.

But Robbins knows Saturday’s FA Carlsberg Vase Second Round tie at Hurn Bridge is a welcomed distraction from their bread and butter of Kent League football

“Yes, it’s a welcome distraction from the league,” Robbins told www.kentishfootball.co.uk tonight. “We’ll go down there full of confidence after a couple of good results. It’s an opportunity we’re relishing.

“We’ve had them watched a few times (and) we’ve got a few boys to look out for. They won 3-0 against Lymington last night and they’ve hit form for the right time as well so it bodes well for a good game.”

Although his side will be gunning for victory on the day, Tunbridge Wells would be favourites for the replay, which would take place at “fortress Culverden” on Tuesday night.

The Wells will be getting on the coach for a 10am departure and Robbins is expecting a tricky ride to Dorset on Saturday.

“It’s a pokey old trip as you have got the difficulty travelling from Tunbridge Wells anyway,” he said. “You have an hour before you hit the motorways, there or there abouts. We’ll get down there quite early on Saturday to stretch our legs.

“I would imagine it’s as far as we could’ve played. Other teams in that league are playing in Devon and Cornwall in the same round, so they must have split that league in half and half came into our group.”

Robbins, however, believes his side are more than capable of reaching the later stages of the competition, which is only open to County League sides.

“Confidence is high but one game at a time high,” he said. “We don’t fear any match we’ve gone into and we haven’t been outplayed by any team this season, although we’ve lost four games this year, but we haven’t been out played in those games.

“Every single game we’ve played this year we’ve gone there to win. We had our bums smacked once at Horsham (YMCA). We went there (for a FA Cup tie) with probably the wrong tactic and we went there to beat them on the day and came a bit unstuck.

“With hindsight it would have been better to bring them back to Culverden.”

After Greenwich Borough and VCD Athletic’s heroics in this competition last season, remember Vickers welcome Mildenhall Town at Oakwood on Saturday, wouldn’t it be great that a Kent League side can follow in the footsteps of Ebbsfleet United, who won the FA Carlsberg Trophy at Wembley Stadium earlier in the year.

“It’s all lovely, it’s all very lovely and it’s nice when you’re talking about (there’s) something to look forward to at the end of it - it’s our FA Cup,” said Robbins.

“At the moment we’re in the top five in our division. I imagine there’s 15 leagues at this level. We should, I think, be getting to get into the last 32 or so.

“Let’s go for it, let’s see what we can do. That’s the law of averages if you get my drift.

“Win this game we’re in the last 64 and as I say realistically the difficulty you have got for this particular game is that it’s deemed a Tuesday replay.

“If we go down there and we draw they have to come to us on Tuesday night. Really it’s kind of a one-off game for them, not much for us.

“To bring them home and play them at Culverden we’ll probably would take that at the moment.”

But with Ross Cable (13 goals); Wes Tate (8) and Mike Lord (7), Tunbridge Wells have enough firepower to get the job done at the first attempt.

But with full-back Jason Barton cup-tied, having played for Redhill against Herne Bay at the first hurdle, Robbins revealed he has to bring some bad news to some of his players.

He added: “We’re at full strength and I have to leave three or four unlucky players out of the squad because everyone’s fit.”

You can listen to regular updates of this game on BBC Radio Kent - and www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be bringing you our report and reaction over the course of the weekend.