We're not getting over excited, says Tonbridge Angels assistant Alex O'Brien

Wednesday 02nd February 2011

TONBRIDGE ANGELS’ assistant manager Alex O’Brien has described his side as “special” following their impressive 3-0 away win over foes Maidstone United last night, writes Stephen McCartney.

A hat-trick from Frannie Collin, who took his goalscoring tally to eighteen goals, kept the Angels well and truly in the promotion race.

Tommy Warrilow’s men are in fourth place in the Ryman Premier League table with 44 points from 22 games - eight points behind leaders Sutton United but with a couple of games in hand.

O’Brien said beating the Stones made up for Saturday’s 3-3 home draw against Lowestoft Town, which was a case of two points dropped.

“To score three goals against a Lowestoft side that have only conceded nine, in the space of, I think, 35 minutes, shows you what a glimmer of what we actually have down here,” said Tonbridge based O’Brien.

“It’s weird because even though we got a point it felt like a loss and the boys were extremely down afterwards and the best thing about football is you wait a couple of days but you’ve got another game and the reaction we got from them (against Maidstone United) was fantastic.

“Frannie got a hat-trick, but he wasn’t the only hero. Everyone involved worked hard and we got the result we needed.

“Any Kent derby is going to be big but obviously the Tonbridge-Maidstone connection it was a good night for our fans. Our fans, to be fair, on the night were very good. Away from home they do sing from start to finish and it’s important that the players respond to that to give them a couple of minutes of our time at the end of the game, a chat in the bar or in the car park. It’s very important to notice they travel to watch the Angels.”

O’Brien added: “On their day the boys are very, very special, a very good side.

The win over Andy Ford’s beleaguered side has stretched the Angels unbeaten run in the league to nine games - that’s eight wins out of nine - and confidence is high going into Saturday’s home clash against relegation threatened side Aveley.

The Essex side were a dark horse last season but they lost their manager Rod Stringer and most of their team to Braintree Town, who are sitting proudly at the top of the Blue Square Bet South table, although the Iron were defeated by ten-man Dartford last night, courtesy of Elliott Bradbrook’s winner.

O’Brien said: “But, like I said before, we’re just going to tick boxes whether we’re playing Aveley or Sutton, we’ll address it as a top-of-the-league side and get the best out of us. Our attitude never changes. It doesn’t matter who we play, we look to win a game of football and that’s what we’ll be doing on Saturday.

“The longer it goes on, if it’s 0-0 after 60 minutes they’re always in with a shout. Hopefully we can get hold of the game nice and early and set it at our high tempo, keep the ball well, use the ball well.

“There’s no way in the world that we’ll just turn up and think ‘we’ve only got Aveley today’ - football isn’t like that and if anyone thinks about that they are very wrong and they are very naive.”

O’Brien says the club are not going to give up on automatic promotion without a fight.

“If you’re in a league you want to win that league until someone tells you otherwise and that’s what we’re going to do,” he added.

“We’re going to tick boxes and carry on and see where it takes us.

“Me and Tom are long in the tooth, we’re not getting over excited. We want to do things right, we want players to entertain and show other teams and managers how good they are.

“We’ve got our own objectives but we’ll be taking each game as it comes. Whether teams do us favours (Cray Wanderers host leaders Sutton United on Saturday) really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the boys do what we ask them to do and we pull together as a side and get results.”

O’Brien wants former Dover Athletic striker Collin to continue his goalscoring streak against Aveley.

“Hand on heart if you ask Frannie is 18 (goals) enough he’ll say “NO!”

“He’s got fantastic feet, he’s got a brilliant footballing brain and he’s movement is brilliant and I just hope he gets many more because he gets himself in great positions. On the ball he’s fantastic and he brings other players in and he’s very important to us.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game

Visit Tonbridge Angels’ website: www.tonbridgeangels.co.uk

Tonbridge Angels v Aveley

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 5th February 2011

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Longmead Stadium, Darenth Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 3JW