Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Ifs, buts and maybes don’t win you matches
Tonbridge manager Steve Mckimm admits it would be harsh on many clubs if some are promoted or relegated now the season’s remaining fixtures have been cancelled. Following a vote by nearly 90% of National League sides from across the three divisions, a clear majority agreed to cancel any outstanding games. Clubs must now decide on how to determine the league’s final standings, whether to promote or relegate, or even conduct play-offs.
However, given the amount of teams still vying for success this campaign, Angels boss Mckimm says it is impossible to predict where his team and others would have finished. “Whatever I think will probably be different to a few others,” he said.
“It’s difficult and whatever happens isn’t going to make everyone happy, although
I do wonder how a group could promote someone when there are games still left to be played because ifs, buts and maybes don’t win you football matches.
“If you’re running away with the league then it may be a different story if you can’t really get caught, but if you’re fighting to stay up or for promotion, then that would be very harsh on a lot of teams. “For us, we had a lot of games in hand which could have pushed us up the table, and we were fourth in the form guide after Christmas.
“We were out of the bottom two, which was our aim at the start of the season, but whether we stayed there, nobody knows. I was confident we would have done.”
The 44-year-old, whose side were sitting in 20th and on 36 points in National League South before the season was halted in March, has also praised the Kent outfit’s position off the field after going more than two months without football at Longmead. Mckimm added: “As a nonleague side, we’ve got to make sure we can look after ourselves in-house so we’ve got a club to come back to for the start of next season.
“But because of what’s going on every club is in limbo, although the blessing that we’ve got is that we’ve got a sound base where we’re run correctly.
“We don’t outspend our means, so we’ll be going into a situation where we’re not fighting against the odds, whereas a lot of clubs will come out the wrong side of this, which is quite frightening for them.”