Chatham Town brave FA Cup run came to an end at National League Havant & Waterlooville in midweek leaving boss Scott Lindsey more focused than ever on the Chats main priority this season, promotion out of SCEFL.
Speaking ahead of his sides return to League action this weekend against AFC Croydon, Lindsey told KSN: “I thought we gave a good account of ourselves throughout the competition and on the night as well!
“I do think that the score-line flattered them a little bit, I think that we played well on the night but when you go up a couple of levels, players will hurt you if given the chance and they were clinical in their chances that they had. It was an evenly matched game especially in the first half even though the score-line would suggest not.
“I was really pleased with how we played and I’m really proud of the players to play against a team that is three divisions above where we play and to show that level of performance against not just a side three levels above us, but against a side that more or likely will be almost promotion favourites to go up.”
“The FA Cup is never a distraction and we went there with the thought that we could win the game and we didn’t play any differently than we normally play, we went and pressed really high up the pitch; we passed the ball when we got it; we had possession at times, we went there fully respectful of them but also with the thought that we could beat them.
“It wasn’t a distraction by any means, but on reflection it was a good experience going as far as we got in the competition and now, we move on and concentrate on the league.”
“Saturday is the most important game for us now as it’s the next game and we always approach every fixture in that way and that manner. We’ll get ourselves ready and prepared and I’ll pick a team that can hopefully go and beat Croydon on Saturday. That’s the most important thing at the moment!”
“We’re in an important run of fixtures now, we’ve got some tough fixtures coming up but I’m getting to the stage of eventually after a quite a period of time, I’m going to have a fully fit squad which I haven’t had.
“Andy Pugh got some minute son the pitch at Havant and I’m starting to now pick from a fully fit squad. And we’re going to need everyone as obviously the fixtures are going to come thick and fast, I think we play every midweek and Saturday so we’re going to be needing all the players!”