We should've got something out of the game, admits Lovell

Monday 01st March 2010

ASHFORD TOWN boss Steve Lovell says he was pleased with the performance from his side at Chipstead at the weekend - despite slumping to the foot of the table again, writes Stephen McCartney.

Wins over Dulwich Hamlet and Horsham YMCA had lifted the Homelands outfit off the foot of the Ryman League Division One South table - but Chipstead took their chance to clinch a 1-0 win at High Road at the weekend and with Whitstable Town winning away at Walton Casuals, Lovell’s men return to the bottom.

Reflecting on Saturday’s game at Chipstead, Lovell told www.kentishfootball.co.uk, “Well, we played very well. If the game was won on possession we would have won it easily, but we kept the ball well, we stopped them from creating chances but we didn’t take our chances when they came along.

“The first 20-25 minutes they didn’t get out of their half and in that time it gets a bit worrying when you don’t take your chances really when they come along.

“It’s always likely they’ll get one chance and score and that’s what happened. It was a deflected shot and Scott (Chalmers-Stevens) had no chance with it but overall I was quite pleased with the performance.

“The boys gave everything. It was the best we’ve passed it around for a long time.

“There wasn’t that spark in the final third when we went in there to cause them too many problems, but saying that we created enough chances to wrap the game up.”

With Mark Tompkins’ Chipstead side now ten points clear of Ashford with their third win in four games, Lovell admitted there was disappointment inside the away dressing room at the final whistle.

The Welshman revealed, “It shows how far, we are getting there really. When we came off the pitch on Saturday we we’re so disappointed to lose the game.

“We expected to go there and get something out of it. You don’t mind losing the game when the opposition deserve it but they didn’t deserve to win the game. I’m just disappointed really that we didn’t get anything from it.”

Before Saturday’s home clash against sixth-from-bottom side Corinthian-Casuals (a side that have lost their last three league games), Lovell takes his side to in-form Cray Wanderers in the quarter-finals of the Kent Senior Cup on Tuesday night.

Paul Jones (slight groin strain), Matt Newman (ankle) and Laurence Harvey (hamstring) have all been ruled out through injury, and Darren Ibrahim is expected to replace Scott Chalmers-Stevens in goal.

“I’ll treat it like a game that I’m hoping to go out and get a result,” said Lovell. “I’ve got one or two people carrying knocks from Saturday so they won’t be risked so it will give me an opportunity for a couple of the younger ones to go in and get a game.

“I might give Darren a game tomorrow anyway because he hasn’t played for a while, but the rest of the squad will be as normal.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s home game, Lovell looks forward to home comforts, having been squeezed out of the game at Chipstead.

“We go on Saturday on our own pitch, our big pitch,” he said. “The one at Chipstead was very small and compact and perhaps that’s the reason why we didn’t create anything in wide areas as we couldn’t get enough space to get the ball in. Hopefully we can do that on Saturday.”

Cray Wanderers manager, Ian Jenkins, nor his assistant, Joe Francis were unavailable.

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

Visit Ashford Town’s website: www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

Cray Wanderers v Ashford Town

Kent Senior Cup Quarter-Final

Tuesday 2nd March 2010

Kick Off 7:45pm

At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF