Warrilow forced to wield the axe after two early Cup exits

TOMMY WARRILOW has a big decision to make this week, when he decides which players he will ship out of Longmead Stadium, writes Stephen McCartney.

Tonbridge Angles were dumped out of the FA Carlsberg Trophy yesterday, going down 3-2 at home to Kent rivals, Ramsgate, in front of a crowd of 372.

Cheesed-off chairman, Nick Sullivan, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk following their second cup exit at the first hurdle, having lost 2-1 at home to Dover Athletic in their only FA Cup tie of the season, has said Warrilow must ship out “one maybe two” players this week, especially after bringing in defender, Scott Gooding, for his second spell.

Gooding spent almost a year at Blue Square South side, Fisher Athletic, where he was a full-time player, but he had his contact terminated with the south London side.

With players’ reputations on the line this week, maybe this is the kick up the backside that the underperforming Angels need.

They are ninth in the Ryman Premier League table, with 20 points from 12 games - ten points behind league leaders Dover Athletic - and only two points adrift from Canvey Island, who occupy the final play-off berth.

The west Kent club splashed out £120,000 on ground improvements during the close season to get their Betterview Longmead Stadium up to Blue Square South standards.

Mr Sullivan revealed last night, “at the moment, we’re over budget and that will be addressed this week and we’ll cut our cloth accordingly.

“It’s not a bottomless pit. What we get through the gate does NOT cover HALF the wages.”

Attendances are down 18.9& on last season, thanks to the credit crunch gripping the country.

Warrilow must lift his troops ahead of their next games - at home to Boreham Wood - on Saturday (25^th October) and then away at Ashford Town (Middlesex) three days later.

“Everyone’s frustrated, I can understand the supporters as well,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.
“I’m as frustrated as them and we just shown (that) in the changing room.

“All I can do, at the end of the season, we’ll look where we are and I know we’re good enough to get into the play-off’s.

“We’ve not been playing very well, the only plus was this wasn’t a league game. The league is the most important thing, but I’m not just dismissing the fact that we’ve gone out of the FA Trophy, which we had a very good run it last year.

“That hurt today as every loss does. The bread and butter is the league and I’ve got to get the lads back Tuesday and Thursday (in training) and get us right for the next two games.”