Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘It’s a huge draw for us’
Kennington are looking forward to the biggest game in their history after reaching the FA Cup first qualifying round for the first time.
Ton have been drawn at home to Isthmian Premier side Carshalton after James HaylockAshdown’s second-half double saw off Little Common 2-0 at Homelands on Saturday.
Dan Scorer’s men keep raising the bar in a period of sustained success for the club - and they’ve done it again.
“It’s a very good draw,” said
Scorer, whose side are due to face Peter Adeniyi’s Robins on September 4.
“It’s a huge tie for us, certainly the biggest match in our history.
“It probably gets repetitive now saying that but because of how we’ve progressed over the last few years we keep moving into new territory.
“The big occasions keep coming and I don’t think there’s ever been one as big as this, the significance of reaching the first qualifying round but also the size of the club we’re playing.
“They’ve been in Conference South, they’re a very strong Step 3 club, well established at that level, and we’ve only just come up to Step 5.
“It’s a huge gap when look at it but we’ve had tremendous home form over the last few years and we’ll go into the game with confidence.
“We’ll be looking to smash through some attendance records. I hope we can get 5-600 people there because it’s a big occasion and the boys deserve to have a big crowd supporting them.
“They’ve worked so hard to reach this point. It’s miles from a cup final but it will feel like a final to us because of how big a tie it is.”
Kennington were worthy winners against Little Common with Haylock-Ashdown - a player who left the club last season - popping up with a quickfire double.
Scorer said: “They made it difficult for us in terms of the way they set up, they sat deep and allowed us to have the majority of the ball.
“I said to the boys at half-time, it was very much like the Horley game in the last round where we just needed to stay patient, keep moving the ball and the game would open up.
“That said, I didn’t expect us to score two goals as quickly as we did, one after the other.
“James left last year. He wasn’t getting the game time he wanted but he’s come back with a different attitude, trained well and he took his opportunity on Saturday.”
Kennington have back-to-back Southern Counties East games before turning their attention to Carshalton.
They take on much-fancied Glebe at Homelands this Saturday and travel to Bearsted on Bank Holiday Monday.
Scorer said: “We’ve got two big games this weekend and they’re the priority before we prepare for the FA Cup.
“That’s the way we’ve always done things - we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s one game at a time, starting with Glebe.
“They’ve made some really strong signings and have had a flying start.
“They’re showing they mean business and we’ll have to rise to the occasion, like we did against Sheppey, one of the other supposed big hitters.”