Wood brothers left out in the cold before signing for Vickers

VCD Athletic are in a current rebuilding programme under new manager Ricky Bennett, who has stepped up from reserve team manager, to replace Paul Foley, who defected to Chatham Town and took 95% of his squad with him.

“Me and Jamie have known Ricky for quite a while from our years at Cray and he rang us up and asked if we wanted us to go down and do pre-season and we signed Monday night,” Lewis told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

Lewis says he was left in the dark by Erith Town manager Steve O’Boyle, after the Dockers boss had signed competition.

“To be honest, it was my intention to go back pre-season with Erith Town, but I got treated quite badly by Boyley and Tony Russell, the assistant, who is down there, and I’ve had a falling out with them.

“I played for them for the last few games of the season to help Steve out.  He called me as I weren’t playing for Cray, so I went down there with the intention of signing next year, as they were restructuring and going for the title next year.

“They’ve brought in quite a lot of new players, so I agreed to come back pre-season and sort a deal out to sign for the season.

“But I heard from Tony Russell – by text – they’ve signed three forwards (Rikki Cable, Leroy Huggins and Billy Shinners), so I wasn’t really required.  It wasn’t the best way of hearing, and I haven’t even had a phone call from Steve, so I’ve lost a lot of respect for him as it goes as a manager.”

Lewis says he has ruled out a return to Cray Wanderers as he couldn’t commit to the time travelling around the M25 in the Ryman Premier League.

“Obviously Cray’s been my club for years,” he said.  “Obviously my uncle Jenko (Ian Jenkins) is the manager and I know a lot of the boys down there.

“But I was in and out of the team in the Ryman Premier, so I thought I needed to step back down and play week in, week out.

“Me and Jamie want to play in the same team together week in, week out. 

“VCD is local to me (as I live in New Eltham) and my wife is due to give birth next week, so I didn’t really want to be travelling all over the place in the Ryman Premier.”

VCD begin their pre-season preparations at Footscray Rugby Club tonight against Kent County League side Metrogas. 

When asked how he prepares for pre-season, Lewis replied, “To be honest, when football stops at the end of April, it’s the time to enjoy yourself and relax, have a few holiday’s and do things on a Saturday with my wife and my mates that I don’t get to do during the summer, play golf and things like that.

“Pre-season started two weeks ago, but two weeks prior to pre-season I went out on the roads and done a bit of running so I was up to the required fitness for the start of pre-season.  You can’t start pre-season two stone over weight as you’ll struggle.  We started two weeks ago and pre-season is going quite well and I feel quite fit.”

Jamie revealed that Bennett is likely to play the two brothers in and around a target man as the club bid to clinch promotion at the first attempt and return to the Ryman League, where they were harshly demoted through ground grading issues.

“Monday’s session we worked on positioning of attacking and defending and Ricky had me and Jamie up top around a six foot two centre forward, so I think he wants us to play with three up front,” he said.

“That will be best as that’s how me and Jamie link up well, either me behind Jamie, or Jamie behind me.”

Lewis, meanwhile, is looking forward to the two warm-up games, and revealed the club’s ambitions for the season ahead.

“Training is obviously needed, but people enjoy playing games don’t they?” he said.

“It will be good to see a lot of the boys, the side at present is very young, with a lot of under 18s and reserves from last year.

“I think me and Jamie are two of the most experienced players down there, so it will be good to see how we get on.

“A lot of them look really good technically, so it’s good to see how the games go tonight and Saturday and how we gel with the youngsters as they do really look good in training.

“It will be good to play with them in a proper game, rather than in training.

“It’s a very young side, other than us two at the moment.  The chairman wants to get straight back in the Ryman League.  I know Ricky’s going to do his best to push on or try and go up this year, but that depends on what other experience he brings in.

“From looking at training, you can’t tell from training, they look a really good side, so I hope we do well.

“We don’t want to be at the bottom of the league really – we want to be challenging for things and that’s where I think we will be.”

Older brother Jamie, meanwhile, is also disappointed with the manner that he left his former club, Cray Wanderers.

“I wanted to say how gutted I am that no one from Cray has contacted me to at least thank me for the ten years that I spent there.”

Jamie has decided to drop down two league’s due to “work commitments and a six month old baby.”

VCD Athletic have also confirmed that Paul Gross and Adam Heaslewood have also signed for the club.

Heaslewood was Beckenham Town’s reserve team manager last season, whilst Gross also has vast experience at Kent League level.

Visit VCD Athletic’s website: www.clubwebsite.co.uk/vcdathleticfc0102