With the tightness and the drama surrounding the top of the Isthmian Premier on the final day of the regular season, Steve McKimm and his Cray Valley PM side are in a possibly unique position. 

Fourth placed Valley are guaranteed an away Play Off Semi Final on Tuesday, for as the top three – Billericay, Horsham and Dartford – battle for the title and Dover Athletic and Chichester do battle for the last Play Off place in Sussex, McKimm’s side welcome Jay Saunders and his new Folkestone Invicta side to the Artic stadium knowing that even with the three points giving them eighty points, they can’t go any higher than where they are – it’s “just” a question which one of the title hopefuls they will travel to on Tuesday night! 

Valley won both of their games over Easter, and the manager admitted, “That’s exactly what we wanted to do. When we were deducted three points we wanted to put things right and now we have won our last five to put us in there and cement our Play Off place now and I think in our first season at this level ever, to finish fourth is an incredible achievement for everyone at the Club.” 

“Whitehawk were safe and we were worthy of the win on Good Friday and then we went to Chatham on Monday against another team who are safe and at times were very expansive; we could have won by more than one-nil as we had one disallowed and missed a couple at the back post and hit the bar, but then they had a really good chance at the end with their keeper up for a set-piece and how it didn’t go in, I will never know!” 

“Everything seems to be going well for us now – the boys were set a target of winning as many games as possible after the debacle at Lewes at the end of March where we lost 4-1. And they have won five out of five since and go into our game with Folkestone on Saturday knowing that nothing can change our League position and we are looking forward to the Play Offs!”  

“The points deduction we suffered was just one of those things – players make mistakes on the pitch which costs points and what happened there was an uncharacteristic error where we thought the paperwork was done already!”

“We thought everything had been done as the lad had been with us for a couple of months already and there was just something missed off the paperwork which on any given day, it doesn’t happen, but this was the day that it did!” 

“We have come back stronger – it wouldn’t have stopped us winning the League as we would have still been behind the top three.” 

“We will be away on Tuesday regardless. The top three are fighting for it; it could come down to someone losing, or if Horsham and Billericay both win it will be won on Goal Difference as it’s that tight, so all in all, after fighting for the title to the end, you do wonder how they are going to feel when two of them are going to be disappointed.”

“Play Offs are funny because you can have everything go for you, you can have everything go against you and not play well; players can get nervous and anxious – there is so much in a Play Off game!”

“We’re just pleased to be in there, we deserve to be in there because of our consistency in the last forty-one games. We will go into Tuesday full of confidence and hope to enjoy ourselves because the Football Club deserves it…” 

“You can ask me who I think we will be playing, but I honestly don’t have a clue as it is that tight!”