Sittingbourne travel to Littlehampton Town this weekend on the back of last weekend’s come from behind win against Phoenix Sports kept Ryan Maxwell’s side firmly in the Isthmian Southeast Play Off pack!
“Last weekend was bittersweet really,” the Brickies boss told us. “I thought that we would have been good value to be leading at the break, but we did not! And then to get caught cold from our own kick-off unnecessarily gave us a very unnecessary mountain to climb. At point Phoenix are going to defend for their lives considering their League position and rightly so. We had to find a way to break it down making the game a hell of a lot harder that it should have been for forty-five minutes.”
“Although we were good value for the win in the end – it was a game we had to win after losing on the Tuesday to Hythe, we should not have had to do to win it. Bitter-sweet; we stood up to the test that we gave ourselves after losing so late on against Hythe, it was important that we did come through it and come through it with three points. Not the result we wanted in terms of a comfortable result and probably not the performance either, but you have to find a way sometimes and we did do that!”
“I certainly learned a lot more about the side on Saturday. Whilst its nice beating the top sides well which are unique moments, you need to win all different types of games and that is the key – every game has a different task, a different obstacle! On paper we should have won comfortably on Saturday but there are no easy games in the League. Only last week, Cray Valley scrapped past another side at the wrong end – Beckenham – 2-1! You have to make sure that you are mentally right on Tuesday and Saturday and be prepared for absolutely everything and when it’s not going great and you’re not passing the ball particularly well, you have to find a way, and I think the lads have understood and the fact that things will not always be easy which is when you need to dig in – which we did – and full credit to them for that. Their keepers made a couple of really good saves, and Chris has missed an open goal – so it could easily have been four or five in the end. We had to go back a step in the game to then get back on level terms to than go and win.”
“I was pretty pleased by the way my team responded, and you do look for things like that in those moments definitely!”
The Brickies begin a run of four away trips in their remaining five League games in 2023 – “it’s good we’ve got a decent away record isn’t it,” Maxwell joked and continued, “we’re unbeaten away from home but ultimately it’s a strength of ours and we’ve got a good side first up in Littlehampton who themselves won in the week after being a goal down! So, again definitely not an easy game – we played them last year and so I have an idea of what they are and know for a fact it will not be an easy game. You have got to play them at some point, so it is a case of being prepared and have planned for every game. Four missed out last week will be in contention as the squad is looking good and almost back to full strength again. Chris Arthur is still suspended, but I’m hoping Jean-Baptiste Fischer and Luke Woodward will be both be available along with Harry Hope – when you lose the quality of those players… it’s bad enough to lose one or two but when you lose four, it’s a big loss to any team particularly at this level, but it’s another strength I suppose in the squad and ultimately it’s a great sign and I’ll have a hell of headache if they’re all available after training who makes the sixteen let alone the starting eleven!”