The club's coming on leaps and bounds, says Seven Acre & Sidcup assistant Steve Arnold

SEVEN ACRE & SIDCUP assistant manager Steve Arnold says he wants to start where his side left off last season.

The Bayliss Avenue outfit finished in sixth-place in the Kent Invicta League last season and they begin their new campaign with a home game against Sheppey United on Saturday, 8 August.

“We’ve had quite a few players come along this year because we’re running the two teams,” said Arnold.

“Now’s the time when we actually split the squads so we’ll be more concentrated on the first team squad.

“Come the start of the season things will be sorted out. Hopefully we’ll be back to how we finished the season last year.”

The Thamesmead based outfit finished their campaign on a six match unbeaten run, or one defeat in their last thirteen games.

Arnold said: “We started well last year. I didn’t come to the club until Christmas time and by the time we were in a slump. We came through that and there were a few personnel changes and we finished the last thirteen games, we lost one.

“It was a great finish to the season so that’s the sort of form we’ll be looking to take to start the season with.

“From our point of view, with what I saw last year, there’s no reason why we can’t end up top five looking to be in and around that position around the league, having had a good season behind us.

“We didn’t do particularly well in the cup competitions.  Fortunately this year we’re back in The FA Vase again and for the first time the club’s in The FA Cup as well so for the work that Lee (Hill) and that have done since I’ve come here the club’s coming on leaps and bounds.

“We’ll consolidate again this year and hopefully we might get another top five finish.”

Seven Acre & Sidcup make their FA Cup debut with a trip to Sevenoaks Town in the Extra Preliminary Round on 15 August.

Louis Collins made the headlines last week when he made his first-team debut for the Oaks in their 5-1 home win over Guru Nanak last week, aged 13!

Looking ahead to the club’s historic FA Cup tie against Micky Collins’ side, Arnold said: It’s the same old cliché. It’s a game of 90 minutes and anyone on their day.

“I was involved with Lordswood prior I came here and there’s no reason the boys, on the day, if they do the right things, they can compete with anyone really.

“We’ll just be looking to take those days as bonus days really and have a good experience of it.”

Visit Seven Acre & Sidcup’s website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/sevenacresidcup

Seven Acre & Sidcup  v  Sheppey United
Kent Invicta League
Saturday 8^th August 2015
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ