Sonny wins player award
Football
Tonbridge Angels defender Sonny Miles has been voted KentOnline’s star man for 2019/20 and the player was keen to thank the family that continues to make his football career possible.
Miles pipped Maidstone’s Saidou Khan to the prestigious honour after close to 3,000 votes following our selection for KentOnline team-of-the-year. In a close contest, the two players were separated by just 11 votes, with both receiving over 1,000 each after we put the poll online last week.
Miles, who turns 30 this year, has spent just a season away from the Angels – when he turned out for Maidstone United – but the commitment to the task isn’t his alone. He said: “Families go unmentioned a lot of the time but I would imagine it’s the same for most nonleague players in that they couldn’t do it without their support.
“I would like to say thanks to my wife Sam and the kids, they let me do it! I have one little baby, she is nearly three, and an older boy who is 12. You need them massively.
“If your missus is ill, unless it’s serious, you can’t go ringing the gaffer and saying I can’t play, she’s got a headache, I’ve got to look after the kids. They have to get on with it and I don’t think people think of it like that.
“I think people just think we get a bit of extra money for running around, but it is tough. I leave my house at 5.30am for work. If you get back from an away game at 1am you get a few hours kip before work again and it is tough, but we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it, would we? “This is probably the first time in a long time we have had an extended period off, it’s normally just a month or so and then we are back doing something, either road running or preparing, and it has been nice to spend a bit ot time with the family and kids.
“It can be difficult being a non-league player, in terms of what you miss out on and stuff.
“You go to work on a Monday, you come home, you work Tuesday and in the evening you either train or play in the evening, you are knackered on a Wednesday, you train Thursday, you rest up Friday for a game Saturday and it just keeps going around.” Miles, who is a construction site manager when working his day job, has been with the Angels since he was a boy.
Gillingham manager Steve Evans is among those predicting a supporter lockout for the rest of the year.
Football authorities are hoping to restart the season in June but games, at least initially, would be played behind closed doors. That could last until 2021.
Fans will have to make do with watching football on TV, or the internet, with live streaming of matches.
Evans said: “I personally don’t think we will see fans in the ground until 2021, which could be three or four months into the new season.
“We could finish this one in July and then start the next in the middle of September.”
It’s the view of the club chairman too.
Paul Scally said: “There are many issues that need to be resolved first, not least player safety. We talk about playing games behind closed doors but has anyone taken into account the players?
“They have family, loved ones, potentially elderly parents who
Canterbury runner Ian Stokes had to make do with the Wincheap Industrial Estate instead of The Mall during his weekend marathon challenge.
Due to Covid-19 many marathon runners have found that their events cancelled, including London, which is now set to be staged on Sunday, October 4. Stokes, 60, was determined not to let his London Marathon training go to waste though, and with many people out exercising along the Stour Valley Way, at least he had plenty of people to chase, armed only with a bag of Jelly Beans. There was no Cutty Sark or Big Ben to observe on the route but an assortment of geese at Chilham Lake, swans along the Stour Valley and the cuckoo at Chartham made up for it, ending with a run through the industrial estate. He managed an impressive time, stopping the clock in a time of 3hrs 24:09mins, awarding himself a digestive biscuit at the end of the 26.2 mile run, rather than a medal. Just prior to the lockdown he competed in the Liverpool half marathon.