Team work has helped with our success, says award-winning Lovell

ASHFORD TOWN boss Steve Lovell refused to take all the plaudits for winning back-to-back manager-of-the-month awards, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Nuts & Bolts are thirteen league games unbeaten and are presently sitting in third place in the Ryman League Division One South table with 46 points from 27 games.

Lovell’s men last tasted a league defeat on 28^th October, going down to a single goal defeat at Merstham, and last Saturday’s 2-1 home win over fellow play-off contenders Metropolitan Police has earned the Welshman deserved praise.

“We played very well, very well,” Lovell told www.kentishfootball.co.uk this lunchtime. “The first half was quite tight, we had a couple of chances to go in front.

“But then second half we started very well, we scored two good goals from Craig Wilkins and Paul Jones and although they got a penalty, a quarter-of-an-hour from the end, I thought we deserved our win.”

The impressive run of form from the men in green has put the Homelands club in the mix for the major honours.

“I think there’s a lot of teams that are in the mix now,” said Lovell. “The pattern between now and the end of the season is the ones who can put together these kind of results will finish the highest.”

Lovell praised the professionalism from his players for keeping themselves ticking over during the cold snap.

All first team games in Kent this month so far have been postponed due to the heaviest snowfall in the Garden of England for 18 years, which has caused transport chaos, and hundreds of school closures at the beginning of the week.

“Well, we had this three weeks ago and we never played for three weeks, but we came back after the break and beat Burgess Hill 4-1 and looked really fit,” said Lovell.

“All the boys prepared themselves - I’m confident they will do that themselves and it’s proved in the last three results that they can be trusted to train themselves.”

If Saturday’s trip to Chipstead is frozen off, Lovell says his side will try to get some training under their belts.

“We’ll find somewhere we can do some training,” he said. “If the weather continues you have to take into consideration the travelling. Players are travelling to get to training sessions but we will hope to do something on the weekend.”

If the High Road pitch is passed playable, Lovell expects his side to pick up the points, but insists his team will not be showing any signs of complacency.

“Chipstead came down to us earlier in the season and beat us 3-2, but we’ve got a different team from that game,” said Lovell.

“It’ll will be very difficult, it’s a small pitch and they’ve had some good results at home recently, so we have to be at our best, if not, we won’t get anything out of the game.

“It’s a small ground, you still have to go to these places and get results. How you do it, you may have to change the way you set up with your formation and personnel, but get the best out of the conditions.”

On his two awards from the Ryman League, Lovell was quick to praise everybody on and off the pitch at The Homelands that makes everything tick.

“We’ve been fortunate,” he said. “We’ve played most of our games before the Christmas period so we haven’t got to catch up that much. The likes of Worthing and Kingstonian have got quite a lot of games to fit in. We’re quite handy, we’ve got between now and the end of the season only two midweek games.

“It’s a team effort, the players have gone on a great run, they’ve been unbeaten, eight wins out of the last nine games, so it’s a team effort, myself, Hugo (Langton) and the players, the chairman and all the volunteers at the club.

“Everybody deserves praise, Steve (Hackett) the groundsman has done a great job getting the games on. It’s people like these who are not seen in the public eye but they go a long way in making the club successful.

“We’ve got a great team at Ashford where everybody helps each other, which is helping with our great run at the moment.”

The Nuts & Bolts are scheduled to play six games this month, and if their trip to Chipstead is frozen off, then supporters can get their football fix on Tuesday night, for the visit of Godalming Town, a side in tenth place in the table and only six points adrift of Cray Wanderers, an off-form side that are clinging onto the final play-off berth.

“We played them earlier in the season, they’re very bright,” recalled the Welshman. “We should have been 3-0 up before they scored their first goal. We missed quite a few chances and it’s a different team to we had them. I’m a lot more confident going into the game.

“February is a big month and you mention the manager-of-the-month award there. I think whoever wins the award for February will be in a good position going into the last couple of months of the season."

Ashford Town are now the best supported club in the Ryman League Division One South table, with average crowds of 309 flocking to The Homelands.

And Lovell wants to deliver success to the fans of the east Kent club.

“Our supporters have been fantastic home and away,” he said. “They haven’t had much to shout about in the last couple of years but this year they’ve been brilliant.

“Again, they’ve helped with our success and I hope we can continue making it an exciting season for them.”

Defensive Rock Sean Ray (one game) and right-sided midfielder, Anthony Browne (three) are ruled out through suspension.

Visit Ashford Town’s website:  www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

Chipstead v Ashford Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 7^th February 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At High Road, Chipstead, Surrey CR5 3SF