Isthmian South East leaders Sittingbourne take a break from League action this weekend as they represent the county in the last thirty-two of the Isuzu FA Trophy as they welcome Salisbury from the National League South to the Staxson Stadium, Woodstock Park. 

New Years Day’s sodden draw at Ashford ended the Brickies winning run at fourteen but represented a good return of the festive period for Ryan Maxwell’s side as the Brickies boss told KSN after drying out from Wednesday’s monsoon like conditions.

“Ten points for us from four games over Christmas is a good return in most campaigns,” Maxwell said, “When you look at the fixtures to get that from three away games and a local derby, we’ll take it!” 

“Broadbridge Heath is always a tough place to go as is Eastbourne and to finish it off on Wednesday is what was Amazon-like conditions at Ashford to take ten points is a very good return.

“But I know for most of our supporters the definite highlight was the 4-0 win over Sheppey on Boxing Day, I know how important that game is to each one of them.

“Indeed, before I even took over, I spoke to Correy (Davidson) who had already played in a derby for the Club, and he told me just how passionate the game was.

“And after taking control, I knew how important it was to all of you, and we have been involved in some real humdingers since. I wanted to get a win for you to give you the bragging rights and we won comfortably.” 

“Saturday though is a huge game for the Club!” 

“It has to go down as one of the biggest games that the Club has had in decades,” Maxwell went on.

“We are facing a team two divisions above us and that obviously comes with its own challenges, but we have beaten a team from that division in the previous round.

“Look this team that we have here at Sittingbourne right now is capable of anything, but what I am going to say to the players and all the Brickies fans is to make sure that they all really enjoy the day, life is short, this is an underdog opportunity for us… we need to enjoy it, enjoy every minute of it.

“We said it before the Enfield game in the last round, this is a fantastic achievement to have reached this far already, and I for one want to make sure that the players enjoy the game itself and the fans enjoy the occasion as believe me, they are few and far between. They really are and it’s important that we take it all in and don’t just focus on the result but focus on the day, the build-up and the match of course!” 

“We are in the last 32 of a national competition, we are the last side from the Isthmian League left in the competition and we are the last Kent side left in the competition – just consider that Brickies.

“The achievement of the players to get this far is a very, very big one as the Trophy is such a difficult competition as we are having to play teams that we don’t know from different parts of the country.

“We have overcome teams above us already, including winning at Dover and Winchester – so it is a great achievement, but as I have said before, this Sittingbourne side can surprise anybody on its day.”