As the FA Cup starts this weekend, last season’s SECFL champions face one of the sides favoured to take their crown as Cray Valley PM face Chatham Town at the Badgers Sports Ground.
The Chats will head up the A2 atop the fledgling SCEFL table after wins over Greenwich Borough and Deal Town, and it was after the 4-1 win in midweek over Deal that Brad Sandeman spoke to KSN about the weekend’s tie.
Sandeman who was in charge of the team in the absence of boss James Collins, told us, “I thought we did well on Tuesday – we dominated the game for long periods and created a lot of good chances in a better performance than when we beat Greenwich last Saturday. Six points out of six which is something that you can never complain at.”
“We’re a good side but unfortunately there are four or five other good sides in this League. So whatever side you do face will be difficult – it’s always a tough league to get out of whoever the favourites are and whoever is paying the most doesn’t really matter as you’ve just got to get the consistency over the whole season which is something Cray Valley had last season which is why they won the league. We had the consistency for two thirds of the season, despite winning two cups at the end of it we fell away in the league which was unfortunate for us.”
When asked about the prospect of having to face Cray Valley at the weekend, Sandeman was honest in his assessment.
“I have to admit that we would have preferred a different team in the cup at the weekend, they’re a good team we know that as we played them in pre-season but it will be a much different game in the cup and I’m hoping we do a little better than we did down here when they dominated the game and won 1-0.
He continued, “hopefully after two hard league games we can go there and maybe cause a surprise especially as they haven’t played any competitive football yet. They’ve lost a few and obviously brought in a few as Kevin (Watson) knows the leagues very well and knows what players to bring in and I assume they’ve still got a very good budget which always helps.”
Despite the one league gap Sandeman remains upbeat about the chances of Chatham causing a potential cupset.
“Ultimately it’s not the draw we would have probably wanted as it would have been nice for a home draw for one and maybe a league below, but these things happen and its what the FA Cup is all about. You never know – if we play well regardless of whether they do or not I’ll expect us to give them a very good game.”