Boss Saunders repaying board’s faith
Jay Saunders appreciates the trust placed in him by the board as Tonbridge fight for a National South play-off spot. A 2-1 victory at Dulwich last weekend extended Angels’ unbeaten run to seven games in league and cup.
Jordan Greenidge and Joe Turner’s deflected strike earned the win that moved Saunders’ side on to 47 points, surpassing last season’s tally of 45 with 15 games still to play. Tonbridge made the difficult decision to sack promotionwinning manager Steve McKimm after eight years in charge last summer and replace him with Saunders as they began a new era on their 3G pitch.
The former Maidstone and Margate boss made big changes to the squad who stayed up last season and has Tonbridge in play-off contention.
They’re ninth, just four points off the top seven, going into their home game against Concord on Saturday (3pm). That’s followed by Chelmsford away on Monday (7.45pm). “I probably put a lot of pressure on myself when we had the meet-the-fans day before the start of the season and I said my aim was to make the playoffs,” said Saunders.
“People probably laughed but you’ve got to set your standards high.
“You don’t just want to survive, that’s not what you’re in football for.
“Macca did a great job and we wanted to build on that and improve. The club made a lot of big decisions, going with 3G and replacing Macca.
“It could have gone either way but so far it’s worked out well. “They’re all good people at the club. I’m pleased they trusted me and chose me to come in and allow me to change everything, really.
“When you look at it, I think I only kept five of the squad, so it was a big call for them to trust me after working with one manager for such a long time. “You come in and want to do things in a different way. “They’ve backed me to do that and we are where we are in the league. We’ll keep pushing and keep trying to improve.
“We’ll try as hard as we can to make the play-offs and if we can’t do that, we’ll try as hard as we can to finish one place outside the play-offs.
“We’re still in the Kent Senior Cup, too, so there’s plenty to play for.”
Tonbridge were good value for their win at Dulwich, whose late goal was no more than a consolation.
“It was a good away performance,” said Saunders. “We were nice and solid. It was literally a two-minute spell where we switched off after Ben Swift had a little altercation with their bench and it all kicked off. Other than that, they didn’t trouble us.”