We want to lay a marker down for the rest of the league, says Tunbridge Wells skipper Jason Bourne

TUNBRIDGE WELLS boss Martin Larkin says he will make changes for their Kent Hurlimann Football League game against Rochester United on Tuesday night.



The Wells left it late to beat Northern League side Shildon 2-0 in their FA Carlsberg Vase Semi-Final First Leg yesterday.

Between 40-50 volunteers gave up their time to ensure that the muddy Culverden Stadium pitch was playable and they were rewarded with two goals in the final twelve minutes.

Big-game striker Andy Irvine scored his fifth goal in the competition with a fine finish, before winger Jon Pilbeam slotted home a penalty into the bottom right-hand corner.

But before Tunbridge Wells make the trip up to Dean Street to contest the second leg next Saturday, Tunbridge Wells return to the bread and butter of the Kent Hurlimann Football League on Tuesday night against Glenn Barlow’s side.

Tunbridge Wells are in tenth-place in the table, with 33 points from 17 games, whilst Rochester United lie in a respectable seventh-place in their inaugural Kent League campaign, with 35 points from their 25 league outings.
 
The home game has been switched to Rochester United’s ground at Rede Court Road and Larkin revealed he will make changes.

”You know how important that league is to me,” said Larkin, after yesterday’s game, which attracted their record crowd of 1,754 to Culverden Stadium.

”I want to finish as high as possible and to be able to do that we have to go and win on Tuesday night.

”We’ll work out a team and strategy and we’ll get going for it and we’ll make sure we focus for midweek.”

This season is evidence that the Kent League – and other league’s for that matter – should slot in more midweek games in the earlier parts of the season so that club’s do not have to suffer from a crippling fixture back log towards the business end of the season, due to postponed fixture due to the weather and successful cup runs.

Club captain, Jason Bourne, insists Tunbridge Wells will not be weakened when they travel to Medway to play a home game.

The club’s longest serving player said: “Martin won’t let us lose our concentration. We’ve got a 23-man squad, there won’t be anyone who will look out of place in a Tunbridge Wells shirt.  There’s not really a starting eleven, there’s fifteen, sixteen, seventeen who all could play so I’m not sure what Martin is going to do.

”I think he’ll mix it up a little bit but it won’t be a weakened side and we won’t let it go softly. We won’t let Rochester get three points.

”We want to climb the table and as Martin says we don’t want to be involved in a sided that finishes tenth, even if it means getting to a Vase final.  We want to be up there. We want to be pushing and we want to lay a marker down for the rest of the league.”

Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk  

Tunbridge Wells  v  Rochester United
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Tuesday 26^th March 2013
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Rede Court Road, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 3TU