Following last Sunday’s 4-0 win at Erith & Belvedere, Sittingbourne trail South East leaders Ramsgate by just six points. The Brickies are the team in form winning seven games in a row since a narrow New Years Day defeat to the leaders, and boss Ryan Maxwell is buzzing.
“Last Sunday was a great day for us!” he told us. “A clean sheet away from home against a team who were hitting a bit of form and are clearly dangerous as their midweek win at Hythe proved.
“We left no stone unturned and were prepared giving them the full respect that they deserved. We start really well and didn’t give them the chance to get going, the result was 4-0 but speaking to their owner at the end, someone I’ve known for a long time but didn’t know he owned the Club. He said we were good value for the result if not more and thought we were the best team that he’s seen this season, which is a lovely compliment! Seven wins on the bounce and a clean sheet away from home on a Sunday with sixty plus happy supporters of the Club at the game, I was absolutely over the moon!”
When the Club beat Burgess Hill two weeks ago, Alex Bentley played his 500th career game! “I find it staggering, I am not sure he’s hit puberty yet!” Maxwell joked before continuing, “he’s a forever young Peter Pan! I have known Alex a long time and had a lot of games against him and I knew what we were getting when we signed him.”
“We missed him, without knowing that we had missed him if that makes sense as he was not available to start the season, but I knew what he was brought to do and it was not just with the ball at his feet, it is what he does in and around the team.
“He plays multiple positions and all equally well, he’s got experience, he’s an athlete – he’s a lot of things is Alex! You hope as a manager that your experienced players understand when you move them around and he has been brilliant and has done exactly what we brought him in to do!
Saturday sees Sittingbourne host Chichester City at Woodstock and Maxwell is only too aware of the test that faces his side next. “They are a very good side,” he told us.
“A very, very good team and we will have to be at our best and respectful of the team that they have and certain individuals who are very, very good and there’s no doubt that we will have to be at our very, very best.
“They are capable of scoring goals in abundance and they’re shown that recently, it’s a tough game; we’re at home so we have to take the responsibility that comes with that and need to be the team in the ascendancy and we’re also the form team, but form changes quickly and we’ve got to make sure that we are aware of everything that we know that they have and possess. There will be no casual approach from us, I can guarantee that.
Maxwell confirmed his squad news saying, “Apart from one, we have a full bill of health. We were able to make a couple of subs last weekend with the next game in mind because of the start we made. We rested a couple of the guys to keep them fresh for the coming games.”
The gates at Woodstock have been slowly rising during the season and over 300 were at the Brickies last Saturday home game when they beat Burgess Hill 5-0, and Maxwell made a promise to the home faithful after the magnificent gesture of money behind the Erith bar last weekend for the travelling fans.
“If we top three hundred through the gate again,” the Irishman declared, “there will be five hundred pounds behind the bar for the fans! The fans at the Club are phenomenal, unique and we certainly will need them in the coming weeks.
“If we are hitting the three hundred mark it really is a great sign, we know that we’ve got to give them something that’s worth watching, and I think that seven unbeaten and the amount of goals that we have scored, I think we’re doing that.
“Giving them back value for money at a time when value for money means so much for so many people, we are an entertainment business at the end of the day and it’s all about numbers; goals, wins, people through the gate so we’re trying to uphold our end of the bargain and that’s all I’ve asked the players to do and make sure that we give everything we possibly have for such a fantastic group of fans.
“To see 300 there last Saturday game was brilliant but let’s see that on a consistent basis! We will keep doing what we can and give them something worth coming to watch.”