Sittingbourne boss Ryan Maxwell has been reflecting on the twelve months where he has taken the Brickies from the wrong end of the Isthmian South East table to Play Off challengers and has promised the Woodstock faithful that there is more to come.

“Can’t believe that Christmas is nearly here and it’s almost a year since I first came to the Club,” the Brickies boss admitted, adding, “it certainly has crept up on us! Doesn’t time fly? It has been an interesting twelve months since I came to the Club, and I think it is time for a little bit of reflection… “

“We’re a lot different now from when we came in at the start of the year as the Club were in a different position in the table after a poor run of form and we had a job on our hands – a job to steer the Club away from the wrong end of the table and ultimately to maintain our step four status was the most important thing – it was clearly the job initially at hand make, no mistake about it; it went quite well and we managed an unbeaten run of eleven games together in the nineteen games that we had, so it was a positive burst meaning we finished the season very strongly and everyone was quite happy come the end of the campaign and that was job done… well part one that is!” 

“The Club goes into Christmas this year with a lot more positive outlook than last, I am sure – we are approaching the halfway point of the season, and we are sitting third in the League, and everyone would have taken that at this point if we had have asked them in the summer.”

“I think we’ve got to keep our feet on the ground of course, but sometimes you have to do a bit of evaluation on how far you’ve come in a relatively short period of time – it’s been a bit of a journey so far and we’re still very much just getting going with a long way to go, but I’d hope that our fans would say so far, so good!” 

“I would be lying if I said that I did not expect to be in or around where we are now at the start of the season! I did expect to be and I feel that if we have worked hard enough to have earned the place we have – we’ve left no stone unturned working really, really hard; we’ve recruited well – we’ve had a lot to deal with, a lot of injuries which we seem to have come through now thankfully in the main getting players back.”

“Some have of course come in and done brilliantly and have stayed in the squad – some have even surprised us staying in the squad and become a constant starter.” 

The Brickies go into Christmas facing three of the other four sides who make up the division’s top five, but Maxwell is realistic about his side challenge – “look, everyone has to play everyone at some point,” he said, “it’s just a case of understanding that it’s just one game at a time and don’t get too wrapped up in who you’ve got this week, who you’ve got next or the one after that!”

“Just focus on the one at hand is my kind of approach to every game; you have got to play them all and it is a case of do we worry about it and overthink it? Well of course we do not!” Maxwell confirmed continuing, “we’ll just plan for the one ahead – which at the moment is Sheppey – and we’ll move onto the next one after Boxing Day.” 

“You are always a victim of your own success when you do well, the expectation level is there, that it will continue. There are things of course that are not in our control, but the things that we can, we will, and we will always just focus on us.”

“I think this team can get better and I am not just saying that. I’ve no doubt it can in fact – we brought two new signings into the building just last week and we are continually looking to improve, and I that I do not mean signing other players, I mean how we play, how we do things, where we can improve, and everything will all aspects of the game.”

“Have we got the right players in the dressing room that want to improve so we are halfway there when the attitude is right… as a management team we just want the absolute best for the Club and ultimately the most points on the board that we can.”

“So, we will not be stopping any time soon – we are still very much hungry to continue to improve and the players are of the same mindsight… so I would say that we are in a good mindset!”