Faversham Town on Saturday will be trying to do something that they haven’t managed in five seasons – win a tie in the FA Trophy.
But they begin their 2019/2020 campaign with a tie against a side who know all about winning trophies at Wembley as they won the FA Vase there just a few short months ago – Chertsey Town who themselves will be playing in their first Trophy tie since 2013.
Reflecting on the start to Faversham’s season, Miles conceded, “I think we’re happy with our start – now that we’ve got seven points from our first seven games I think we’d have taken that, but looking at the games individually we’re disappointed that we haven’t got more points on the board. We can go through three or four games where we’ve just lost concentration and made mistakes to see us conceding goals!
“Before the season we’d have been happy with this start and a good win in the Cup – yes we could have done better but we are only just over a month into the season, although,” the Faversham boss admitted, “it does seem a lot longer! We started on August 17th, but it seems like we’ve played so much football already that it seems a bit longer!”
With the defending Vase holders come to Kent, Miles agreed “We had a good home record last year and that’s something we’re looking to push on with this.
“We’re glad it’s a home game – we know its going to be tough and we know that they’re a good side who won their League last year as well as beating Cray Valley in the Vase Final – they’re doing well in the League (BetVictor South Central) already this season, and so we know we’re in for a tough game on Saturday and we’ve got to perform to the best of our abilities!”
“We were disappointed in the FA Cup getting the draw away to Tooting and Mitcham who incidentally are still in the Competition – Chertsey at home in the Trophy; it will be important for us to have a run in the Trophy, it’s the basics to win at home and then we try to win a couple of Trophy games.
“It’s highly unlikely that we’re going to get to the Final but we’re at home and we want to win our home games and if we want to win a few rounds we have to win on Saturday and see where the draw takes us.”
“Our support is fantastic since Danny and I came in last season – our supporters have stuck with us and we’re still getting over two hundred plus through the gates which is brilliant.
“And I hope that they can see that we’ve got a young side who are going to make mistakes, but we’ve got a young fit side; we’ve got a side who is running for the full ninety minutes, trying to perform for the supporters – and I say it every week in the programme that the support we get from the locals has been fantastic and we just hope that we can do them proud and win a few more games at home to get us into mid-table in the League and look forward to a much more pleasant season than last season.”
Team news for Faversham is reasonably good as Miles told us, “Jack Sellens twisted his ankle on Tuesday and we’ll be looking at that – Steven Mills shoulder is still giving him some problems, but everyone else should be OK, so we’re looking forward to another really good test!”