Travelling down to Deal for a League Cup fixture midweek is a crazy situation, says Sevenoaks Town boss Micky Collins

SEVENOAKS TOWN boss Micky Collins says it’s a crazy situation to be asked to travel to Deal Town for a midweek Cup tie.

The Oaks travel down to the Kent coast on Tuesday night to play a Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Second Round tie, after being knocked out of the Kent Reliance Senior Trophy yesterday, going down to a 3-0 defeat to Ashford United at Greatness Park.

Collins, who runs his own business in West Wickham (near Bromley) and lives in Hadlow, said: “It’s a mad fixture! You’re in the League Cup and you play it midweek and you have to travel down there, it’s a crazy situation!

“Make it a Saturday so everyone can make it.  You’ve got guys coming out of London who have to make it down there.

“If it’s a league game, it’s part and parcel, you have to take it on the chin but for a League Cup game I think it’s a bit crazy, especially when you consider how much money it costs for us to all to go there and vice versa – if Deal have to come to us, it’s the same.

“I don’t think it’s right! Maybe you can regionalise it and bring it in later.

“It’s a cup I’ve won with Erith & Belvedere and we’ll go down there. We’ll be at full-strength, hopefully, so we’ll see if anyone gets scared of the journey and tries to swerve it.”

Sevenoaks Town go into the game sitting in tenth-place in the table with 15 points from 11 games, while Deal Town sit in the bottom two with six points from nine and are only off the bottom on goal-difference to Croydon.

Collins said: “We’re building still and it’s been like that since we got here.

“I think we’re a little bit better than we were last year, even though we’ve got a lot more kids playing.

“It’s where we needed to be. We’re waiting on the development of the ground to kick in which Paul (Lansdale) the chairman is working furiously behind the scenes to sort so hopefully that will be kicking in at the end of the season, which is exciting.

“It’s just stabilising the club, making us a competitive outfit, which we are and if we can stay in a Cup and have a little run and push on and get a half decent league position and we can have a look at it in the summer and the development and the 3G pitch and we’ll look at it and go again.”

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

Deal Town  v  Sevenoaks Town
Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Second Round
Tuesday 20^th October 2015
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Charles Sports Ground, St Leonards Road, Deal, Kent CT14 9AU