With the season on hold for a month at least, KSN took the time to catch up with Cray Wanderers coach Joe Vines on how the season has gone so far and his hopes for the rest of the campaign once we get going again.

The Wands currently sit fifth place in the Isthmian League Premier Division with 15 points from 7 games played, having also reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup and progressed in the FA Trophy, winning their last two games prior to Covid lockdown 2.

Hi Joe, Thanks again for agreeing to do this.

Pleasure as always

How do you feel the season has gone so far for The Wands?

We were just getting started. Although in the very early stages we were picking up points our performances were not great by our usual standards. I think someone asked me prior to the season about how to maintain momentum and I had stated simply that we can’t and I was proven right. The long lay-off caused all sorts of issues that we had never had to encounter before. We have recruited well, I think that this is a strength of ours, by adding Jason Banton and Kyron Richards as well as keeping the squad from last season. This second lockdown came at a moment when we were just starting to show glimpses of the old us. I think the squad is in a good place and we are confident now we can continue to win football matches. I think if we win our game in hand we go 2nd in the table so not a terrible start considering we have underperformed.

What would you highlight of the season be so far?

The FA Cup win at Bristol Manor Farm was great for the team. It was a real moment to remember. We started really well and were in control of the game before the referee somehow managed to confuse Ben Mundele with Joe Taylor and sent Ben off for a 2nd bookable offence. We then lost Rhys to some kind of allergic reaction just before halftime and we didn’t recover from it very well. We had to hold on for dear life at the end and then won on penalties! Highlight of the night was waiting outside the hospital for Rhys and Ally to jump on the coach. It is something I will never forget and showed the togetherness we have in the dressing room. The loss at Canvey brought us back down to earth with a bump!

With teams currently not allowed to train how have you been managing to keep in touch with the squad?

We are having a Zoom call tonight! We try to stay in touch with the boys via the WhatsApp group and speak to individuals where we need to. The boys are pretty close as a group so they are all looking after eachother. We also capture their general Health & Wellbeing via a Googlesheet so we can monitor individuals if they are having a tough time.

If we are to get going again in December will the team need a couple of friendlies to get back some sharpness and match fitness?

I would say we would need a couple of good sessions and maybe one game. I don’t think that a month’s layoff is as impactful as the previous enforced long term break. We have to manage the mental aspects of this as well because there are players who are running out of football when you consider the boys that are 33/34/35 and we have to look at how they are able to pick up where they left off. It is a challenging time for people across all aspects of their life so we need empathy from the governing bodies involved.

The fixtures schedule was heavy enough with the late start to the season, how do you think clubs will cope with even more games to cram in before the end of May?

I think that most clubs are running with a slightly larger squad in the way we have. We can’t complain that football is cut short and then complain that we are playing too many games in too short a time, we have to be positive and roll with the punches. Whether or not it works in our favour, we are all in the same boat at the moment. We’ve all seen some odd results this season already and there is a huge change of personnel in teams week to week so it makes for interesting matches and exciting contests.

The club has a great record of bringing through young players from the youth set up into the first team, I guess this will be even more important to do this now?

We were looking at the number of youth players brought through during Tony’s spell in charge and the number is 20+ I believe with the likes of Freddie Parker and Lee Lewis most prevalent but also players like Kwame Poku (now at Colchester). We are big believers in developing our own players and there are certainly boys within the youth section that will feature in the first team squad sooner rather than later. The club hasn’t got a U23 team this season and the U18s are first years so it is difficult for them to be immediately ready for the pressures and physicality of the first team but we feel that if the club continues to strengthen and develop good players we will continue to consider them. 

As a management team have Tony, Nathan and yourself set any targets for the season?

We are looking to compete for promotion. We haven’t really discussed winning the league in great detail if I’m honest, we are more focused on splitting the season into thirds and looking at where we are after 14 games, then 28 games and then the final push. We try to approach each game with equal importance which is tough when they are coming thick and fast. Our target is to finish as high as possible and if we can stay ahead of the likes of Carshalton, Worthing and Bishops Stortford we are in with a shout.

Good luck and thanks