Tonbridge Angels face an important test in the comeback season in National League South as Steve McKimm takes his third from bottom Angels to face rock bottom Hampton and Richmond Borough.

Given their start, you could have accused the Angels boss of being downbeat. But when we caught up with McKimm this week he was far from that.

Indeed, he told us, “We haven’t been completely torn apart by any of the teams who we’ve played – some of the teams we’ve played have got some good experienced players in their squads. But what is noticeable is that we’re making mistakes that are being repeated – and that needs to stop!”

“It’s either a case that the players wise up quickly or we’ll have to change personnel because we had a chat on Tuesday night, and we haven’t worked for five long hard years to get to where we are now to throw it away now.”

“We’ve had a lot of games in a short space of time but knowing that we haven’t been torn apart by any team, we need to address it and address it quickly.”

“I think it’s ridiculous that we’ve already played so many games by the end of September and I’m sure other managers will agree as well as I think now we go a good few weeks up until Christmas when we don’t have a Tuesday night game; it could have been spread out. I just think that it’s all been cram as many in as possible for six to eight weeks and it takes its’ toll on a small squad on a part time squad that has to work – there’s no real recovery time, but it’s what we’re involved in and we have to get on with it as no matter how much us as managers complain about it, it doesn’t seem to affect the powers that be to change it.”

All that said, last weekend’s exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Eastbourne Borough did little to cheer the manager as he admitted, “It was very frustrating as it was a nothing game as both teams were in my view poor on the day.”

“I think there was probably five or six chances for both teams in total. It wasn’t one where it was cut and thrust and the crowd were on edge and there was an opportunity for us to get through, even though it was the hardest draw we could have had as it was the only all National South draw.”

“We had an opportunity and we threw it away in my opinion – we were leading and all we had to do was to hang onto it but we didn’t play well in the second half at all in my opinion – we end up letting two goals again and that was very disappointing more so to the club and the supporters really. “

“The prize money doesn’t go into my budget it goes back into the Club so that they can get things done – it’s all been like that. I’m more disappointed that we couldn’t put up a fight especially in the second half so that we could get something to put some money back into the club.”

Looking ahead to the weekend’s trip to Hampton, McKimm admitted, “Saturday is a massive game; two weeks time is a massive game; all the games up to the forty-second game are massive games – as I said when we won at Dulwich, we weren’t winning the League or getting relegated at Dulwich, and the same will be the case at Hampton on Saturday.”

“They’ve signed some good experienced players in the last week and have strengthened since their last game – it’s going to be tough but we’ll go there and do the best that we can, and I do believe that if we can eliminate the mistakes that we’re making, we’ll start picking up points.”

“But I haven’t got a crystal ball to see what the players are going to do once they go out onto the pitch. We’ll set up how we set up; we’ll give them the information on set-pieces and stuff so I’m just hoping that our preparation will be right and it’s then down to the players on the pitch to make sure that they’re fully focused mentally for the ninety-five minutes that the game lasts.”

“We’ve got a full squad this week, which is the first time in a while, so we’ll sort a few things at training and fingers crossed for the weekend!”