Football in the Medway Towns is potentially going into one of its most exciting seasons and whilst the rise and hopes of Gillingham and Chatham Town have been well documented, there’s plans afoot at Martyn Grove too, home of SCEFL side Lordswood Football Club
KSN were invited to meet the three men who are now in leading positions, and all have played for the Club in the past, Chairman Ray Broad, Vice Chairman Gary Peck and director of football Jason Lillis.
“It’s hard to compete at our level unless you want to throw thousands at the project,” the Chairman said.
“Since manager Matt Barham came into the Club, there’s been a focus if you like to imbed the Youth, and with the type of players that we’ve got I do think that we can compete in this League from what I’ve seen so far. The boys are getting fit, and I think at our level it’s a massive thing.
“It wasn’t my initial plans to be Chairman, but as things progressed you can see the foundations of the Club are there and if we can get the right people in the right places I think that we can really push things forward, it’s been in a good place before, it’s a great Club and with the right people around we can push it in the right direction.”
“The foundations are there it just needs a new injection after the guys who kept the Club going since the club entered the Kent League in 1997, I do take my hat off to every single one of them for keeping the Club going. But now is the opportunity to really push things forward.”
The Vice Chairman added Gary Peck “I’ve played for the club, captained the Club and still live locally. It’s exciting times, we see what our friends and neighbours are doing with their Clubs. First and foremost is to get out into the local community and get them involved and get the clubs Youth section back up and running to a good level which is where it was where we all played.
The Club used to have THE best set up but that’s been whittered away which is why Jason’s been brought back in to help! It’s the only way that we can get the Club sustainable, we haven’t got pots of money to throw at it so well focus on the Youth and bring the local youth through and give them a go and see how we get on, realistically what’s the worst that can happen?”
“Personally, I think theres too much money involved, and everyone wants to win and get there quick, and Clubs think they can throw money at it to get there. Of course, it happens but for a lot of clubs it isn’t sustainable, so we’re going to try it the other way and focus on getting the youth through.
“And I think it’s a lot more fun to be honest, people with smiles; everyone’s playing, everyone’s happy; the Clubs happy; the parents are happy, and that’s the message we want to try and get back under one banner – that may take a while but we’re in for the long haul!”
“Lordswood used to be a big name in Youth football in the Medway Towns and along with Ray, that’s where we want to go back to.”
The third man involved is former Gillingham striker and Lordswood boss Lillis who has returned to the club towards the end of last season as director of football.
Chairman Broad who played under Lillis for the Club in two different spells, had this to say, “He works at Gillingham and knows his football, he’s a great person to have involved with the Club on a football side and is someone who is really going to push the Youth forward. We want players to come into the Club and go on through us to achieve really good things!”
“We’d be very proud if any of the boys that we’re taking in now at seventeen or eighteen, can make Conference South or above by the time they’re mid-twenties!”
For his part, Lillis after listening to his colleagues and hearing that his latest involvement with the Club was one of the reasons for the Chairman’s and Vice Chairman’s taking their respective roles, told us, “When the Club brought me back in for the redevelopment, there were a lot of changes that needed to be made.
“There were tough decisions that needed to be made from people I knew really well but the Club is bigger than any individual. I came in to develop and with a protocol of wanting to make a pathway for young players to better themselves. There are a lot of Clubs with a lot of young players but what first team opportunities are they really given in men’s football? They are very limited percentage wise.”
Lillis went on, “I just think that as a Club the ethos and the environment that we want to bring is that everyone has a chance, everyone has a pathway. And that will go from our youth sides all the way up, they see local players from within the Community playing first team football and we will drive that forward.
“The youth coaches that are on board to date have that same drive and environment, everyone will be accountable for what they do as I think it’s the only way forward!”
“It’s not a five-minute job, it’s about the sustainability of the Club and how we move forward, my role is how we develop it and we’ve all got ambitions; all clubs have but we want to do baby steps before we get there, but when we get there.
“We know that there’s a lot of money in SCEFL this year and we know that we won’t compete with those sides, but one thing we can do is to get these boys to compete on the pitch by making them hungry and wanting to win a game of football and with the players that we have, I think we’ve got a great starting place already.”
That optimism seemed to be justified for Lordswood as on Saturday at Martyn Grove in their first competitive game of the season, goals from James Jeffrey and Artem Kuchkov gave the home side a come from behind win in the FA Cup Preliminary Round against Egham Town ahead of their first SCEFL game of the season next weekend when they travel to Rusthall.
The Clubs reward for the weekends Cup triumph will be a visit from Cray Valley PM on August 19th.