After six months of inactivity, the new SCEFL season starts this weekend, but for many clubs, the start of the League season is a continuation of the competitive season that started with FA Cup ties in midweek.

One side is Chatham Town who have been fancied by many to be one of the challengers for honours and we’ve been talking to boss Scott Lindsey about the season ahead and their FA Cup triumph in midweek.

The Chats boss told us, “Tuesdays win in the FA Cup was exactly what we needed, a good competitive game after pre-season and very pleased to get the win under our belt.”

Lindsey went on, “It’s been a strange time for everyone in football, obviously having that amount of time off sadly is what it is and we’ve prepared as well as we can for the new season and ready to start again.

“I was pleased with the way we’ve prepared in Lockdown and how we looked right the way through pre-season and on Tuesday night, we looked fit and we looked strong and we looked capable of doing good things this season.

“Like everybody, its been a difficult situation and a difficult time but I think that we’ve coped with it as well as we could do!”

He then told us of the story behind his sides midweek triumph – “What made our win even better,” Lindsey admitted, “was the way the boys coped with the horrendous traffic we encountered getting there, kick off was supposed to be 7:30 but it was delayed until 8.00 as there was a major incident on the M25 which meant a lot of our players were stuck and didn’t arrive until late, and a couple who should have started didn’t make the ground at all!

“We had to restructure the starting team which wasn’t ideal, and I was happy with the team that we were able to pick from those who were there. These things happen and we’ve got a lot of strength in terms of depth in our squad which showed why we’ve got that!

“We’re going to be playing a lot of Saturday, Tuesday most weeks throughout the season and there’s going to be suspensions, there is going to be injuries, there is going to be tired legs which if’s why its important that we keep the eleven that are on the pitch fresh!

“We may lose some who aren’t happy that they’re not getting the game time but that’s something that’s out of my control! Everybody wants to play every game but what’s important is we keep it fresh all the time and make sure that the players on the pitch are always ready to play.”

“We go to Erith and Belvedere to start the season and I believe that they’ve made quite a few changes to last year so its kind of an unknown for us. I’m sure though that it will be a tough game, it’ll be a difficult game and we’ll have to really be really on our game in order to get anything from it, but that said, we’ll have to be like that most weeks given hope competitive we all expect SCEFL to be this year. If we get our game right, then we should be OK!”