Strike pairing is key to our Cup success, says Abbott

SITTINGBOURNE boss Gary Abbott wants to avoid slipping on a banana skin when his side take on in-form Chertsey Town in their FA Cup preliminary round tie on Sunday, writes Stephen McCartney.

Chertsey Town arrive at Bourne Park, having won all four of their Combined Counties League games and will want to avenge for their 1-0 defeat to the Bourne in last season’s competition.

Abbott, who saw his side lose 1-0 at home to Folkestone Invicta last night, hopes his Richard Brady, his assistant manager, is fit enough to lead the line with Elie Kayembe.

But Kayembe, who arrived from Ryman One North outfit Ilford during the summer, has been set targets by Abbott.

“I’ve had a chat with Elie, he needs to trim up a little bit and needs to get sharper,” Abbott told www.kentishfootball.co.uk last night.

“He knows and we’ll work on that so hopefully in a couple of weeks time hopefully he’ll be a bit trimmer and sharper.

“He causes problems, he’s only young as well, only 20, but once he gets his little runs going, he’s someone who holds the ball up, which is what we lacked last year.”

Abbott was forced to play a 4-5-1 formation against Folkestone Invicta last night but will switch to the tried and tested method of 4-4-2 if Brady recovers from his groin strain.

“Playing 4-4-2 suits Elie more because he’s got someone up there with him, but Richard Brady was out tonight,” said Abbott.

“When Richard’s playing up front with him, it works so much better. If we had Brady out there tonight I think we would have won two or three nil, to be honest with you.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Chertsey Town, Abbott knows his side are in for a tough encounter.

“That’s not going to be easy, we know that,” he warned.

“FA Cup, everyone knows about the FA Cup. We’ve just got to go out there with the right frame of mind and the right way against Chertsey and we shouldn’t have any problems, but like you say it’s the FA Cup.

“They’re going to come down here, I think they were here tonight watching us, so hopefully they’ll be impressed that we play football.

“I want to win Sunday and get into the next round of the FA Cup. That is it. Full stop. We have got to win Sunday.”

Visit Sittingbourne’s website: www.sittingbournefc.co.uk

Sittingbourne v Chertsey Town
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) Preliminary Round
Sunday 31^st August 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Bourne Park, Central Park Stadium, Church Road, Eurolink, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3SB