Away from this weekend’s Emirates FA Cup action, Sittingbourne’s new striker Chris Harris will be looking to consolidate on his recovery from injury that has seen his time at Woodstock so far cut short by injury. 

But the former Bishop’s Stortford striker has already shown the Brickies faithful what they might be seeing in the coming weeks by scoring the winner in each of Ryan Maxwell’s side’s last two wins – against Ashford United in the Kent Cup and Ashford Town (Middx) last weekend in the FA Trophy. 

Speaking to the Club’s website this week, Harris said, “Saturday wasn’t the most ideal conditions for football – I felt we ground out the win rather than playing our best stuff!” 

“You have to give everything you can mentally on a day like that, break the game down, stay switched on and to be fair I think the boys did that and got through!” 

“It’s been very frustrating not to be as involved as I would have liked,” Harris went on following his injury pre-season which has meant that so far, he’s yet to start for Sittingbourne. “My goal in the Kent Cup – the celebration was just a let out of frustration I think it’s horrible, you hate not playing especially at the start of the season when you want to hit the ground running and to miss six weeks and then get two or three weeks into pre-season where you think you’re getting some momentum and then to have that cut short and having to start again is horrible if I’m honest.”

“It’s been really frustrating but I’m really glad that I can now get onto the pitch and start to contribute as much as I can. There have been a handful of us in the same boat and the boss has had a few injuries, so I don’t really feel that we’ve had the momentum to go into the season because of the knocks and people finding their feet.” 

“But hopefully now with most of the group coming back we can get to know each other’s games and you’ll see the performances get better and better. The pleasing thing is that we’re not at one hundred percent yet but at least we are getting the results.” 

The Brickies head to Merstham in the Isthmian South East and Harris acknowledged, “the League is still our priority with everything, so we’ve got to do the business, get the three points and start marching up the table and get some momentum going – it’s a huge game for us.” 

“We’ve got a really good group of lads even though there are a few of us who are new to it. It’s a credit to those who have been at the Club a while in how they’ve welcomed us and made us feel welcome. We all get on well and we’re all in the same boat – we want to get things done; we want to train well which can only bode well for the rest of the season.”