Kentish Express Ashford & District
Lows put into perspective
Kennington manager Dan Scorer has been taking stock after a difficult spell for his team.
Ton have known nothing but success in recent years, and have held their own since promotion to the Southern Counties East Premier Division.
But sobering 5-1 and 4-0 beatings in their Kent Senior Trophy and FA Vase doubleheader with Deal Town got Scorer thinking.
They went on to lose 2-1 in a much-improved performance at leaders Sheppey last Tuesday and went down by the same scoreline at home to Erith & Belvedere on Saturday. Gary Lockyer cancelled out Harvey Brand’s opener a minute before half-time but Tyler Anderson-Parr won it. “It’s been a tough couple of weeks for everyone and we’ve had to use the time away from football to really reflect on where we are and what we want to achieve,” said Scorer, whose side visit Tunbridge Wells this Saturday.
“We’ve been blessed with an incredible winning mentality in the past few years, and this is certainly the first time in my managerial career that I’ve had to reassess my expectations and accept that there will be a lot more highs and lows before we can really establish ourselves at this level.
“Winning has always been a habit and I’ve always enforced that mindset upon the players. “There have been some difficult moments already this season and we have to accept that sometimes there are moments out of our control. “However, there have been games where we’ve let ourselves down and we have to continue to learn from that. “Just as the players are, myself and my management team are learning more and more about what it takes to be successful at this level.
“I don’t feel as though we’re a million miles away from
where we want to be and can certainly be encouraged by some of the performances. “As a group we have to find a way of maintaining those high standards and setting out with the right attitude for each game. That can be
really difficult when you know you’re not in a title race and you’re confident of staying away from a relegation battle. “For now we’re going to keep taking each game as it comes and continue to find our feet at this level.”