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.