Following their three-one defeat at Ashford United last weekend, Sittingbourne go into the last two games of the Isthmian South East season just a single point ahead of Swale neighbours Faversham Town with the final play-off places still up for grabs.
Both sides have two games left and whilst Faversham head for a Kent derby against Sevenoaks Town, the Brickies head into Sussex to face a Hassocks side who are fighting against the relegation trap door and are just two points behind Swale’s third side – Sheppey United – in the battle for survival.
Going into the weekend, we caught up with Brickies boss Reece Prestedge who was obviously disappointed about the result last time out! He told us, “At the end of the day Ashford are on a great run and it was always going to be a tough game last weekend – we need to pick ourselves up and go again. We have two games to go and it’s still in our own hands.”
“It’s strange that football throws these scenario’s up with local rivals going head-to-head, but we have to make sure that we do what we need to do to cement ourselves in that fifth place.”
“We had four clear chances in the first fifteen, twenty minutes at Ashford and if we had taken one of more of those the game would have been very different. We got frustrated and there were a few bad decisions made by us and it was a disappointing way to lose a game of football.”
The Brickies head to Sussex and the manager admitted, “At this stage of the season there is no easy games. They had a great result against second placed Croydon last weekend (the Sussex strugglers won 3-1 after going behind) – everyone down at the bottom are fighting for their lives and it’s the time of the season where everyone is more than capable of beating anyone. We have to make sure that we turn up in the best possible shape and with the energy that we can provide.”
“We have had a weird situation where we didn’t play for a month at the start of the year and I think that knocked us out of our stride after we came in and had a great run going fifteen unbeaten. Having four weeks off without playing has proved tough to get the momentum back and I have always said that momentum is massive in football.
“The boys have been unbelievable as we have probably played more Tuesdays than anyone else in this League either side of the break and the Christmas period. The boys have really been through it and come out the other side still in the play-off places and that’s the objective.”
“We’ve been in the places early and were looking upwards at one stage potentially being second and maybe pushing Three Bridges, but things don’t often work out in football and we have probably been too inconsistent in recent weeks but at the same time many of the sides we are competition with have too – every team goes through it as I think at the moment this league is as competitive as it ever has been.”
“These are the games that you want to be a part of – you want to be part of games where you are pushing – two games to go and still fighting for something positive – that’s what you want to be involved in, so we will go to Hassocks with the right mentality, we’ve had good sessions this week that will take us into Saturdays game with the belief and confidence that will hopefully get the result that we need!”