We're confident our season will turn around, says Sporting Club Thamesmead boss Jason Long

SPORTING CLUB THAMESMEAD manager Jason Long insists he will turn his side’s season around.

The club opened their campaign with a 3-1 win at Lydd Town but have since lost 2-1 at Rochester United, drew 2-2 at home to FC Elmstead, before losing 2-1 at home to Kent Football United and suffered a 6-1 defeat at Rusthall.

The Acre are in the bottom five in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table, having collected five points from as many games.

“The season has been an interesting start,” said Long.

“We had a fantastic pre-season but unfortunately we have not been able to continue the good form of results throughout which is something myself and the management team have identified and we want to ensure we can resolve the lack of points we have achieved in the league for August.

“We had a great win against Lydd and it should have been more than a 3-1 game but we were very disappointed from the result with Rochester United the week after.

“I thought we showed a very positive reaction to be winning 2-0 against Elmstead for 75 minutes but let go a two-goal slip in the last 15 minutes at home, which was hard to take.

“The Kent Football United game was not good enough and we performed badly and this continued onto the Rusthall game on Bank Holiday Monday, which has made us have to result in making a few changes to the squad.

“We believe the squad is very good and we have some excellent lads in the team.

“We have added a few new players to strengthen the squad and ensure the players know that we trust in them but if we don’t get results and performances are bad we do have to look at changing things.

“It is nothing personal but we have been given our targets for the season by the board and we want to work towards this.

“I am confident our season will turn around and we are working hard off the pitch having positive conversations with players and ensuring our players know what is expected to achieve our targets.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead welcome their league rivals Sutton Athletic to Bayliss Avenue tomorrow to contest a FA Vase First Qualifying Round tie.

Dan Kelly’s side may be in tenth-place in the table with four points from three games but their FA Cup debut campaign has been what dreams are made off.

They beat Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division side Deal Town 3-2 at the first hurdle before shocking Ashford Town (Middlesex) 6-0 at Lower Road in the Preliminary Round last weekend.

Ashford Town (Middlesex) play in the Isthmian League South Central Division – two levels higher than the Hextable based outfit - and are rooted to the foot of the table having lost all of their three league games so far this season.

Long said: “It will be a tough game tomorrow against Sutton Athletic in The FA Vase but I am confident if the boys work hard and stick together throughout and stay resilient we have the quality to go and do a job.

“We will continue to keep professional in what we do on and off the pitch and we’re confident our season will turn around.”

Visit Sporting Club Thamesmead’s website:  www.pitchero.com/clubs/sportingclubthamesmeadfc

Sporting Club Thamesmead  v  Sutton Athletic
The Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Saturday 31 August 2019
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ