Micky Collins: Sevenoaks Town, Step Four, flirting with the play-offs? Wowzers! You have to pinch yourself at times!

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Micky Collins he wants to flirt with the play-offs this season.

The Oaks finished in tenth-place in their debut Isthmian League South East Division season, having collected 47 points from their 36 league outings.

Sevenoaks Town opened their pre-season campaign with a 1-0 home defeat to Vanarama National League South side Dartford yesterday, with Jedd Smith firing home the only goal of the game with 74 minutes on the clock.

Collins has signed powerhouse forward Connor French from their league rivals Three Bridges and he got through the first 45 minutes yesterday.

Tyrell Richardson-Brown has left Horsham – where he helped them beat Ashford United 2-1 after extra time in the Isthmian League South East Division Play-Off Final on Friday 3 May 2019 – to sign for Sevenoaks Town.

Striker Louis Collins, 17, has also signed to play for his father, following his release from Scunthorpe United, who were relegated to Sky Bet League Two.

Richardson-Brown missed the Dartford game through work commitments that were already arranged before he signed for the Oaks, while Louis Collins and Frankie Sawyer were both ruled out through injury.

“Louis left Scunthorpe and had another offer elsewhere,” revealed the manager.

“Scunthrope got relegated so they pulled what they wanted to do and Louis had a chance to go and play somewhere else with a one-year contract and he decided he didn’t want to play under 23s, he wants to play senior football.  It was a brave decision by him so he comes back home.

“He’s been out injured for five and a half months now so it’s been a bit of a frustrating time for him, but he’s now on his way back and hopefully we’ll see him back on the pitch and he can go and test himself at 17 at senior level.”

Collins is keen to improve on their tenth-place finish this season.

“We have to try to finish higher,” he said.

“First one is always going to be don’t get relegated because that’s the remit, we don’t want to go down.

“Can we finish higher than we did last season? Can we flirt with the play-offs?  Sevenoaks Town, Step Four, flirting with the play-offs? Wowzers! You have to pinch yourself at times!

“I’d like to think that we’ll score more goals.  I think that was the problem last year.

“Defensively, we weren’t too far off it, a couple of games we were quite poor but we weren’t far off it, but we never scored enough goals at the right time in games to win them or draw them and that was our problem.

“Stats don’t lie, so that’s what we’re looking to improving.  The people that we’ve brought in, I think that’s going to happen.”

Sevenoaks Town’s second pre-season game is away to Deal Town on Saturday 13 July.

Derek Hares’ men opened their pre-season campaign with a 7-0 home defeat to Hemel Hempstead Town yesterday.

Sammy Moore’s side play in the same division as Dartford.

Visit Sevenoaks Town’s website: www.sevenoakstownfc.co.uk