We just wanted to follow up Saturday's performance and win, says frustrated Ray Turner

Postponed at 7:26pm, Faversham Town missed out on potentially on fourth placed in Ryman League Division One South after their home game with Leatherhead was deemed unplayable.

Ten minutes later, Faversham boss Ray Turner emerged from the dressing room, and whilst his players began a training session on the pitch, a frustrated Lilywhites boss reflected on what might have been for his side.

"The only saving grace is that I suppose we would have been in training anyway," admitted Turner as his players were put through their paces.

"We just wanted to follow up Saturday's performance and win - the boys’ are very frustrated at the moment and I can fully understand that.

“The pressure was being put on the referee to not start the game - I must be honest I felt it was OK to start, and I felt that he should really have looked at it and seen how the players coped in the early stages of the game before making any final decision.

OK I accept that it could have become dangerous but I honestly don’t think that that (pointing at the pitch) is dangerous!"

And to be fair to Turner he did have a point as despite BOTH sets of players conducting sessions ON the playing area, there was none of the "crunching" noises that you usually associate with studs running on a frozen pitch.

"The pitch isn’t even frozen yet!" Turner confirmed looking at his watch as the clock ticked round to 7:45 and the scheduled kick off time. "It's a bit frosty on top," he added sighing, "but the only thing that I say is that there's no point me or anyone else dwelling on it because we're not going to change the decision!"

Following last weekend’s 7-0 drubbing of Walton Casuals, Turner reflected on a game where the opposition had two goal keepers sent off during the game.

"I don’t think I've ever known a game like it, and neither so I'm told have the Ryman League," the Faversham boss joked. "It was a strange game - we started it so well we were always going to win it. It was a great response to our defeat to Chipstead.

“The sending offs  obviously impacted the game, but I'm sure that we would have gone on and won it anyway - we had so much attacking threat about us and that’s what pleased me the most. All that any manager can ask is that the players respond especially after I changed a few things and fortunately it worked in our favour.

“It gave me a few interesting problems for tonight and some of them were going to keep their places this evening. It was a risk and a big decision although you could argue the fact that we hadn’t been getting results at home.

“It’s important that we get our home form to match our decent away form and it’s the only thing that has been letting us down, which again makes tonight even more upsetting and disappointing!"

Saturday is chance to continue that impressive away form Turner referred to, which has seen his side unbeaten on their League travels since August 21st (and a 0-2 defeat at Ramsgate - a run of seven without defeat), when they make the trip to Corinthian- Casuals.

Turner said: "Casuals are quite often a Jeckel and Hyde side where they can seemingly beat anyone on their day, which is something you could say about just about anyone in this League at the moment.

“Casuals have always got some dangerous players who can cause you problems if you're not quite on it, and of course they'll be decent on their own pitch which is usually a great surface to play on. I'm just hoping that despite tonight’s frustrations at no playing that we can take on the way we played against Walton on Saturday.

“It really was a joy - our possession and the way we moved the ball around far better than we did in November when it was stop start where we only had two League games - so fingers crossed that we can get straight back into on Saturday, before we head down the road to play Herne Bay on the Wednesday night (December 19th).

“It'll be another big challenge as I'm sure it'll be a lively derby. They started off fantastically well but recently they've had a little readjustment and it'll be interesting to see their result at the weekend.

“But I think it will be a game that we're looking forward to as I think that at the moment there's not really anyone to fear at the moment in this League especially if we can repeat the weekend performance."

"But whatever we say, it’s all about tonight and the disappointment of not playing. It’s even more frustrating as you look out there now as the boys are training hard.

“One of the biggest disappointments in not playing is that this is our game in hand - we've got two on some but on most we've one and this was going to be it, and when you've got that situation you just want to take advantage of it.

“Tonight, with Worthing not playing, we would have gone fourth if we'd have won, so that’s the opportunity that we've been deprived of.

“I really do think that the official should have started the game, especially given that the Leatherhead supporters had made the trip as well, and even the team themselves who have made the journey tonight - you'd have thought that they would have wanted the game on - we certainly did - but as I've said," as he shrugged his shoulders and moved to join his side and their training session, "we can't change anything, so there's not really any point moaning about it, is there?"

Visit Faversham Town’s website: www.favershamtownfc.co.uk  

Corinthian-Casuals  v  Faversham Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 15^th December 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at King Georges Field, Queen Mary Close, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surrey KT6 7NA