

CHAIRMAN NOTES | Cray Valley (PM)
Ben Clasper
0 minutes read
Welcome to the first of two home games either side of Christmas which conclude a tough five-match run against top 8 teams all vying for promotion and bring the first half of the season to a close.
Going into that run I thought we would need two wins and a draw or a win and three draws to go into the new year feeling upbeat about our own promotion ambitions.
Defeat at home to Dover was a blow but after two 2-2 away draws at Lewes and Dartford if we can return to the form that took us top of the home performance table we will be in a much stronger position than last year.
We are only a point better off than we were this time last season but only four points short of the play-offs compared with the seven-point gap we faced a year ago.
This is a far tighter league with only five points separating the 17th placed team from the one in the final play-off spot in 5th (last season that gap was 13 points). Five games ago we were three points off the play-offs and have not won since but after three draws and two defeats we are still only four points behind.
With that recent form we should be further off the pace but all clubs are struggling to put runs together and as a result five different clubs have held fifth spot since we reached that high at the start of November.
While results elsewhere have been kinder than we deserve we have to accept that we have not been good enough over the past six weeks and we can’t keep hiding behind injuries, we have to own that problem and then fix it so it was pleasing to see Dillon, Louis and Max all return to action in the last two games.
We’re back to creating goals again but still capable of giving goals away, consistency will be key in the second half of the season. Home form is top 5, away form is bottom 5, goals scored is top 5, goals conceded is bottom 5.
Fix those discrepancies and we will make play-offs comfortably, fail to do that and we only have ourselves to blame if we fall short again.
On behalf of everyone at the club I’d like to wish you all a peaceful holiday period and hope to see you and any visiting friends and families on Boxing Day.