Ian Varley has now been in charge at Rochester United for a few weeks, it has been an interesting few weeks for him and the team.

He took over the team in the SCEFL Premier Division near the foot of the table, without a win in eight games this season. Performances have improved but the results are yet to come for Varley.

Speaking to Kent Sports News, he said: “It has been tough but overall very enjoyable. We got off to a great start winning the clubs first game of the season at Erith Town and although we haven’t got the right results in the next few games we have had some encouraging performances and those games really could have gone either way.”

Ian’s first home game for the club at the Sports Ground, looked to be going the right way on Non-League day before two late goals saw them slip to defeat, something that frustrated the manager.

He added: “It was extremely disappointing as we looked solid for 85 minutes but then a lapse of concentration let Cray back in it and then they won a very dubious penalty in the 96^th minute which was difficult to take. Overall though it was a positive performance.”

Lightning struck in the next game as Varley saw his side once again in the lead only two concede late goals, then take the lead again and still end up losing.

“I was far from happy with this result as we were in total control for 65 minutes and then once we conceded we just lost all focus and forgot what we had done in the first place to get ourselves 2-0 up.

“I certainly made my feelings known to the players after the game and made sure they knew that it wasn’t acceptable as we should be winning games like that after putting ourselves in a commanding position.”

It was a break from the league last weekend with a tricky Kent Senior Trophy tie against a very strong Sevenoaks Town side, although they lost two-nil, Ian was pleased with his side.

He said: “I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against probably the strongest team in our division so I was relatively pleased with the performance.”

Finally we asked Ian how he and his staff are working on with the team to improve the team on and off the pitch.

“Well now we only have one game a week until March so we have the opportunity to get some training sessions in each week which is where we can get some work done.

“Unfortunately as soon as I came in we had 5 games in the space of 2-3 weeks so we haven’t had time to get the boys on the training pitch so I’m looking forward to getting out there and preparing for games.”