A quick note...

In the unlikely event anyone ever reads my blog, may I just say that a small percentage of the posts are fairly entertaining. I would try to up that percentage, but I'm just a bit boring. Perhaps you can have a skim through and try and search for the entertaining ones? And if (when) you don't find any, please don't hate me.

Stay classy xx

Kent Invicta League

"Kent's missing link has been found"

That's what it says on the official website, anyway. It's Kent's new 'Step 6' league, bridging the gap between the Kent League (5) & the Kent County League (7).

I am lucky enough to be a part of this League's historic debut season - I am goalkeeping coach at reigning Kent County league champions Hollands & Blair FC.

The first ever game in this league was played on Friday night (19/8) between the newly formed Erith & Dartford Town FC and Phoenix Sports FC. EDT are managed ny non-league goalscoring legend Gary Abbott and play their home games at VCD Athletic's Oakwood ground in Crayford (right around the corner from where I grew up). Phoenix are managed by a former team mate of mine, Scott Saunders, and their ground is about a 5 minute walk from VCD. So about as local a derby as you could get for the big League opener.

I decided to go along and watch. I'd not been to VCD since they did it up a few years back. It's changed a lot since I played there last. The playing surface looked awesome, and there was a crowd of around 300 at the game. An excellent turn out for this level of football.

There were representatives from lots of different clubs at the game that I noticed - lots of familiar faces. And probably lots more of the crowd were there doing their homework, too, that I didn't know. There were club officials, managers and players there from teams ranging from Ryman Premier sides to Kent County Division 2. I guess everyone wanted to have a look at the standard that would be set for the new league, and have a look at the new side, Erith & Dartford.

It was a fairly entertaining game. Very one sided, though. It ended up being 4-0 to Phoenix, with the Erith & Dartford lads looking well out of their depth. In the first half, Phoenix delivered 4 crosses in to the box, and scored from 3 of them. In the second half they added the 4th, had a penalty well saved, and probably SHOULD have added 3 or 4 more goals. The Kentish Football match report can be found here, if you're interested.

With the game done, I left with the mental notes I had made, and duly forgot them by the time I got to the m25 turn off of the a2.

On Saturday we played a home game against Ashford United (playing their first game 'back' after folding in 2010). More than one person said to me on the Friday night that our game was the 'title decider'. These people are idiots. On paper, Ashford and ourselves are the 'favourites', but this is a new League, with new teams and plenty of 'unknown' factors to deal with. Ashford, along with Erith & Dartford, have the best grounds in the league. They're Ryman standard grounds. The people at our club are doing a brilliant job improving the facilities at our place, but the pitch is not the greatest. Hopefully one day that'll change, but we have players good enough to know how to deal with it.

As I was setting up for the warm up, the Ashford players all had to walk past me. All but one moaned about the pitch pretty much as soon as they stepped on it.

We won the game 1-0. To be fair, we could've had 5 or 6, and they probably could've had 2. Tubes (our goalkeeper) make a great save in the first half to keep them out, and a rare mistake in the 2nd half went unpunished thanks to the imperfections of the pitch. I don't think any of the 100+ crowd would argue we were worth the 3 points.

I have looked, with interest, at the Ashford fans' views on their forum. Everyone's had a moan about the pitch. Makes me smile, because our pitch is by no means the worst in the league! I think they're in for a few shocks, and will find out money doesn't buy you instant success at this level.

Anyway, it looks like this new league will be interesting. Hopefully the crowds will be good, and the football will be good for them to watch! I certainly enjoyed being part of the opening weekend, but I'm hoping that, this time next year, I can write a post about the club's first game in the Kent League...