I expect my players to look after themselves, says Cray boss Ian Jenkins

Monday 20th December 2010

CRAY WANDERERS boss Ian Jenkins says he has every confidence that his players will look after themselves during the unofficial Christmas break, writes Stephen McCartney.

The long-serving Wands stalwart says he is “happy” going into Christmas sitting in fourth place in the Ryman Premier League table - the highest ranked Kent side in the division - with 31 points from 19 games and are only seven points behind leaders Sutton United.

“I’m well happy with it to be honest with you mate,” Jenkins told www.kentishfootball.co.uk when asked to reflect on the season so far.

“I didn’t expect to be as high as we are at this time of the year but we’ve got a good squad and we’ve just done well this year.”

Sidcup based Jenkins added: “We’ve got a good goalscorer in Laurent Hamici. It’s made a massive difference having a goalscorer - I think he’s got seventeen goals. Whoever scores that amount of goals in those amount of games we’ve played is going to make a difference to a side and that’s what we’ve lacked over the last few years, an out and out goalscorer.

“Brems (Leigh Bremner) has come back as well and he’s banging a few in the last couple of games so long may that continue.

“It’s not just them, everyone seems to be chipping in. I think we’ve score the most in the division as well.

“We’re back to what we was in the old days, three or four years ago, when we scored a lot of goals but we’re not letting that many in. We’re not doing that bad defensively but it’s all about scoring goals!”

The Wands have scored 38 goals and conceded 22 goals in league games this season.

Jenkins said: “At the moment mate you settle where you are at Christmas don’t you, but we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks when teams around us have got games in hand so if they win those games in hand we’ll drop down a few places.

“We’re happy where we are, we’ll have a push with a couple of months to go, then we’ll obviously go for it.”

With the wintry weather causing havoc at present, Jenkins revealed that his side are still being put through their paces at their main Sidcup training venue.

He said: “We’re pretty good, we’ve always trained in the snow. We train at Coldharbour Centre, off Chappel Farm Road down in Sidcup and they allow us to go out on the Astroturf even though it’s covered in snow. We sign a disclaimer and if anyone gets injured it’s not down to them, it’s down to us.

“Saturday we had a snow storm and we went up to Goals and they said ‘it was a bit dangerous so it’s up to you if you train on it.’

“Eight players got there, which is really good. If it’s snowing we still go and train on it. I never call it off mate. You’ve got to get together, that’s what it’s all about mate!”

Controversial referee Stuart Attwell gave the all-clear for Ipswich Town’s home game in the Npower Championship against Leicester City to go ahead on Saturday night at a snowbound Portman Road in front of the SKY Sports cameras on Saturday night.

Attwell inspected the pitch on three occasions before agreeing to play before taking the players off the pitch for a fifteen minute break just short of the hour mark. He had already extended the interval break to 25 minutes to allow a 40-strong arm of workers to clear the goalmouths and make the pitch markings visible.

Ipswich won the game 3-0, courtesy of three first half goals, and Cray Wanderers’ home Kent Senior Cup tie against Dover Athletic on Tuesday night was called off a day before the game and Jenkins said: “You’ve got to be right to call games off. We haven’t got the manpower to clear pitches like they did at Ispwich the other night, even though they did it, it was still a farce! They should never have played that game! The referee should have known better.

“If you have the man power to clear pitches, you don’t know how hard it is underneath so you’ve got to call them off. Teams travel up and down the country so thy won’t be able to get to games so it makes sense to call them off as early as possible.”

Jenkins hopes The Big Freeze melts in time of their trip to Margate (27 December) and the visit of Hastings United to Hayes Lane on 1 January 2011.

“I’m looking forward to them to be honest,” added Jenkins.

“We haven’t played Margate this year and we’ve got a good record down there since they’ve been in our league, even in the Cup a few years ago we won down there, so we’re going to go down there confident.

“We’re pretty good away from home and we’ll go there confident and hopefully we can get the three points there and take it on for Hastings at home.

“Hastings will have a new manager (Jason Hopkinson) by then so it’s going to be difficult. New managers come into new teams and they have a bit of a spurt so it’s going to be difficult.”

Jenkins is confident that his side will be fighting fit by the time they next take to the field.

“We had a good pre-season anyway, we put in an extra day’s training so we was doing four days a week so our fitness levels at the minute are pretty good compared to other teams around,” he said.

“I’m not too concerned about that because gone are the days when players have a lot to drink and abuse their bodies over Christmas. I think they’re very professional at this level nowadays so I expect my players to look after themselves and we should be alright for the 27th.

“I was probably out on a Friday night! No, no, it was a little bit different. I was playing at Kent League level and I played at Ryman Premier at the age of 19-20 at Leyton-Wingate and it was very professional then to be honest with you.

“The kids I’ve got in my squad now and the older ones, you’ve got to look after your bodies because now the game’s got quicker and you’ve got to be fitter.”

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.craywands.co.uk

Margate v Cray Wanderers

Ryman Premier League

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Hartsdown Park, Hartsdown Road, Margate, Kent CT9 5QZ