Ashford United go into Christmas knowing that a good festive period could well propel Danny Kedwell’s side right into the Isthmian South East Play Off reckoning… if they aren’t already. 

We caught up with the Nuts-and-Bolts boss and he told us, “We’re on a good run – we knew it was going to come when you are building a new team, trying to build where you want to be and getting to know each other.”

“I always knew it would come at some point – we didn’t have the greatest start in the League, but we had such good Cups runs that it covered it a bit.”

“It’s been nice the last few weeks getting players back as well. We have played a lot of players who haven’t played minutes, or we have got squads out where players weren’t fit enough and shouldn’t have played.”

“It’s been very tough to get enough players out to play week in and week out, but gradually players have come back allowing us to build and do really well.” 

One defeat in nine is the form that Kedwell’s side takes into Christmas and with two of the bottom four (Phoenix Sports and Hythe Town) to face in their next two games, the festive campaign doesn’t start too bad for Ashford.

“On paper it looks like that doesn’t it,” Kedwell conceded, “But to be honest, I’d rather play the top teams rather than the bottom ones as you are not “expected” to lose and expected to win, which puts a different sort of pressure on.”

“We just have to keep doing what we have been doing the last six weeks or so. The only game that we lost (away to Merstham) we were down to ten men after fifteen minutes and we were still the better team!”

“I could put that down as a bad performance, but we were magnificent if I am honest; they scored right at the end and we didn’t take our chances and going down to ten hurts.”

“But since then, we have been very consistent and we have to carry that on and see how it goes.” 

Players have to be careful of what they eat over Christmas even in non-League and whilst talking to Kedwell who himself played well over one hundred games for Gillingham in an illustrious career, we asked what the differences are at this time of year between the pro and the non-league player?

“There’s not really that much of a difference to be honest,” the Ashford boss admitted.

“You still play the same sort of schedule as you would as a pro! You probably look after yourself a bit more as a pro as you really don’t know what you are going to get as a non-league player and being able to have a drink on Christmas Day!”

“When you’re a pro you actually go in and train either Christmas morning or afternoon to get rid of the dinner – in truth that is the only difference!”  

Saturday’s home game with rock bottom Phoenix sees Ashford hit the half way point of their season – the first of course in the Kedwell era…

“I think we are where we would like to be,” Kedwell said. “I would say at the start we would have looked to be in the top half and building for the second half of the season!”

“We are six points off the Play Offs going into Christmas where before we went on this run, we were sixteen/seventeen points off the top six.”

“We just have to go game by game and see where it takes us by the end. It’s a very tight League – I don’t think anyone complaining that is probably going to be between Sittingbourne and Ramsgate to win the league, and rightly so as they have both had brilliant first halves of the season.”

“Everyone knows that they are the favourites to go up, but outside of them it’s beginning to tighten up and with Beckenham losing a few of their very good players, they got their points early doors and it really is all to play for – the top ten are probably looking for the Play Off spot and I think anyone can get in, it’s that tight!”