Kent League title dual: We were champions for 25 seconds, admits stunned Seager

Tommy Martin (11 minutes) and Steve Marshall (67) had goals ruled out for offside as Vickers gate-crashed the Oysterboys’ promotion party yesterday, courtesy of a brace from much-travelled striker, Leroy Huggins.

Marshall had given the treble chasers the lead after 58 minutes, but Huggins levelled in less than a minute, firing home Mark Greatorex’s cross from 12-yards, to stun the expectant 450 fans at The Belmont.

And Huggins bundled the ball across the line from a yard out when Kevin Fewell, whose only missed one game this season, allowed Mark Greatorex’s cross sail over his head.

And instead of scenes of celebration on the Belmont pitch after the game, the Kent League title race will be settled on the final day of the season.

Whitstable who went 23 league games without defeat, have lost four games during their last seven outings, but Seager admitted his side will still win their first ever Kent League title.

They must collect four points from their last two games, at Sevenoaks Town (Tuesday) and at Thamesmead Town next Saturday.

“Everyone sort of wrote the title off a long time ago and said we’ve won it. That’s why you never heard me ever getting carried away,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday.

“Championships are never won in March and it was always going to go down to the wire - there’s some good sides in this league.

“Didn’t think we deserved to lose today, I thought a draw on the day would have been a fair result but we’ve been beaten and we’ve got to bounce back.

“It’s in our hands, we’re three points clear and the pressure is still on VCD and they know to win the title they have to win both their last games and hope we can’t win ours, but we’re confident we’ll win our last two games, take the four points that we need from that and move on.”

Seager admitted he was disappointed that his side conceded within seconds of taking the lead.

“To be honest, that was the biggest disappointment for me as a manager,” he said.

“We got ourselves in front and you think to yourself if you can keep it tight for 10-15 minutes the pressure all off a sudden goes on them.

“But I said to the players afterwards “you were champions for 25 seconds today” but we didn’t defend right and I thought both goals were bad defensive errors and if you don’t defend properly, you don’t deserve to win games at the end of the day.

“But it would have been nice to have done it here but if we have to do it the hard way, I don’t care where we win it, just as long we’re there or there abouts.”

Seager was quick to explain that the club has improved on previous campaigns.

He said: “As long as we don’t lose on Tuesday night, then the club will have their highest ever finish as a Kent League club so if someone would have said to us at the beginning of the season, “you’ll win the Kent Senior (Trophy), you’ll have your highest ever finish and you’ll be competing for the final of the League Cup“, I’d snap their hands off!

“All I’m worried about is winning the championship at the moment, and I still believe we’re good enough to do that.”

And he admitted that he always felt his young squad would get the jitters as they approach the finishing line with all four of their league defeats coming in their last seven outings.

“Yes, we’ve gone through a bit of a sticky patch but I knew we would. We’ve got a very, very young side and I knew the nerves would come in,” he said.

“I thought today we played with a bit of fear for the first half but I thought second half we came out and played a lot better.

“It’s very hard for me as a manager. I’ve played the game but as a manager the nervous bit for me today was the fact when you cross that white line there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s all in the players hands then.

“I would have thrived on games like today but I’m a manager, it’s a learning curve or me.

“The lads are disappointed because we’ve lost to our closest rivals at home but the lads we’re very confident after the game.”

Seager believes his side will collect the four points that they need in their high-pressure games at Greatness Park and Bayliss Avenue this week.

“They know it’s a little bit of a slip up, but we’ve showed many times this year that we can win away from home,” he said.

“It’s going to be tough, Sevenoaks are going well but we know what we’ve got to do and it’s up to the lads now.

“Have they got what it takes to win it? I honestly believe they have, so it’s up to the players now.

“Just disappointed because it could have been the best day in the club’s history today.

“I think it was always on the cards to go to Thamesmead on the last day of the season.

“As soon as you looked at that fixture, when the fixtures came out, you thought if you’re there or there abouts….

“At the end of the day if someone said to me, two games to go you’d be three points clear, level games, two away games left to play, I would have snapped their hands off.

“Let’s not get carried away, we weren’t even one of the favourites at the beginning of the season. VCD and Erith & Belvedere were the favourites and we weren’t so the other teams have underachieved.

"We’ve over-achieved. I think as a club we’ve over achieved and people have expected too much.

“You never heard me getting carried away because I’ve never believed it was (won). I knew I had a young side and knew they would get to the nervous stage and that’s what they’re doing but they’ve bounced back with a win last Sunday and a great performance at Slade Green on Tuesday night and we’ll bounce back again.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering the matches at Greatness Park and Culverden Stadium this week.

Visit club websites:

www.sevenoakstownfc.org

www.whitstabletownfc.co.uk

Sevenoaks Town v Whitstable Town
Kent League Premier Division
Tuesday 24^th April 2007
Kick Off 7:30pm
At Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks