Dean Frost: You're not going to see a better coach at this level and he should be a full-time coach in my eyes, says table-topping Sporting Club Thamesmead boss Aaron Jeffery

SPORTING CLUB Thamesmead manager Aaron Jeffery says his new coach Dean Frost has become his best signing of the season.

The Acre leapfrogged over title-favourites Kennington to reach the summit of the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table after beating Forest Hill Park 4-1 at Bayliss Avenue last night.

Sporting Club Thamesmead have won seven out of seven and are three points clear of Kennington with 21 points from eight games, three points clear of Dan Scorer’s side, who have a couple of games in hand.

Frost, who is a London black taxi driver by trade, has been working for Jeffery’s electrical company due to the lack of business on London’s streets due to the maintsteam media putting the fear in people’s lives over Covid-19 and this partnership has paid dividends on the pitch too.

Frost has worked for VCD Athletic, Welling United and Ebbsfleet United and is a highly-regarded coach, having played as a centre-half for Dartford and Bromley.

“Dean Frost has come in to do the coaching for me,” said Jeffery.

“He’s a friend of mine and he’s had a massive influence on the side and the players.

“You’re not going to see a better coach at this level or the next two or three levels above at least. He should be a full-time coach in my eyes and there’s no doubt he’ll be back at a full-time club like he was before (at Ebbsfleet United working under Jamie Day).

“Everything he says to the boys they take on board. I think you can see this season the way he sets us up when we do our training sessions and the way he’s so in-depth with our defenders and their starting positions at set-pieces, honestly the stuff behind the scenes that he puts on, he makes us so organised and for me that’s been like another signing for us this year because he can win us games with the way he sets us up.”

The club were in the top four, the final promotion place, when last season was abandoned in March due to the coronavirus health pandemic and Jeffery has carried on the work by his predecessor Jason Long.

Sporting Club Thamesmead’s next two games are against the bottom two sides in Meridian VP (away, Saturday 7 November) and at home to Bridon Ropes (Tuesday 10 November).

“I would have liked to have another game on Saturday with the form we’re in, we just want to keep playing games now, just to keep the momentum going,” said Jeffery.

“We’ve got a day off on Saturday so we’ll get the boys in and we’ll do a light session and prepare ourselves for that game.

“I’ve been around this level long enough and you can’t take that for granted. You can’t read into the table too much and turn up thinking when you’re playing bottom of the league because anybody can beat anybody in this league. You’ve seen it with good sides having slow starts and losing games which you think they’d be winning and it happens all the time.

“We have to go into that Meridian game and not be complacent and take the right attitude into it and just treat every game and every team with respect and do what you need to do to win the game and not look at the table and think this is going to be easy because that’s when you come unstuck and slip up.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead are top of the tree with 21 points from eight games, having played a couple more than Kennington, who have collected 18 points. Holmesdale follow with 15 points from six games and Rochester United have banked 14 points from six games to make up the promotion quartet.

“Well, arguably when the season stopped we were sitting fourth. I know other teams had games in hand and I was apart of it last year with Jason and we were sitting in a promotion place and I was confident we would’ve gone up.

“When I took the job the one thing we wanted to carry on from last year. A top-four spot was the aim and that is our aim as a club, as a team.

“I think if we carry on playing the way we do and keep doing the things we’re doing, we’ve got a great chance of finishing in that top four and that’s what the chairman and players and myself all want - and I think we will.”