Season Tickets:

To apply for next years season ticket, please download the word file here

This Sunday sees the first Annual Adult Disabilities football tournament at The Homelands.

Please come and support our own Ashford Town Rangers teams, and all the other participants in what should be a great day.

The tournament starts at 10am and will go on until mid afternoon, finishing with the cup and medal presentations.

Admission is free, and both the bar and tea bar will be open throughout the day

Youth Trials

18th May at Sandyacres Sports & Social Club,Sandyhurst Lane,Ashford,Kent,TN25 4NT

Times of Trials

U12 & U13's to register between 9am to 9:45am ,Trials start at 10am. 

U15's  to  register between 10am to 10:45am ,Trials start at 11am.

 U18's  to register between 11am to 11:45am ,Trials start at 12noon.

Further info :- 

please address any questions to Phil Gore  via email :- phil.noodle@tesco.net  or 0784 905 5732  [ calls made after 1pm week days / weekends ]

Anoraks’ Corner – the 2007-8 Season

by Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

As usual, I have accumulated a pile of statistics on the season, (some of them meaningless), but let’s cut to the chase, and look at what is probably the most important statistic of all - the final league position. We finished 8^th, six points adrift of the final promotion play-off place. Whether this represents under- or over-achievement depends entirely on the expectations that each individual fan or Director had at the start of the season. What cannot be denied is that this is certainly Ashford Town’s highest finishing position since their 6^th place in the Southern League Eastern Division in 1999-2000.

Since then, the Club has endured two distinct phases. From 2000-2001 to 2003-2004, we had four seasons of mid-table mediocrity in the Doc Martens Southern League, during which our finishing position ranged between 11^th and 14^th each year. After that, we had The Dark Ages – three seasons in which we “achieved” positions of 20^th, 21^st (out of 23) and 18^th. The bare figures rather gloss over the reality that these were relegation-haunted campaigns, with the horror shows on the pitch being rivalled only by goings-on off the pitch which threatened the very existence of the Club. Put into this historical context, then, 8^th place must be seen as being, not just a considerable improvement, but also a first step in what should be a new and brighter era.

Having acknowledged the step forward, however, it should also be pointed out that an even better league position might have been achieved if there had not been the change of Manager in mid-season. Having started with Clive Walker at the helm, with a squad of contracted players, there was obviously some disruption caused when Steve Lovell was brought in after 12 league games. It also took time for Steve to weed out the players that he did not want, and to bring in his own personnel. In fact, I would argue that Steve was no more than a spectator, keeping a watching brief, for the first three games of his tenure – all defeats – so that any comparison between the performance of the two Managers should ignore these three games. So here’s that comparison. Clive Walker left the Club in 11^th position, with a total of 18 points from 12 games – which obviously equates to an average of 1.5 points per game. Steve Lovell eventually achieved 8^th position, gaining 49 points from (effectively) 27 games, which works out at 1.81 points per game. (Lest there be any arguments about the assumption of ignoring Steve’s initial three games in charge, the points per game average would be 1.63 if all 30 games were taken into account).

So what has contributed to the vast improvement in on-the-pitch outcomes ?  Well, unsurprisingly, there have been wholesale changes in playing staff since last season. This can certainly be seen from the “Team of the Season” that I have put together, below. Now this has nothing directly to do with performance; this is purely a statement of who played most minutes in each position, whilst the substitutes bench is comprised of the remaining players who clocked up most minutes, but who did not make it into this eleven. So, in time-honoured 4-4-2 formation, here is the 2007-8 team: -

Jamie RileyN

icky Humphrey

Rob Gillman

Sean Ray

Daniel Brathwaite

Mitchell Sherwood

Ryan Briggs

Danny Lye

Jimmy Bottle

Walid Matata

Mark Lovell

Subs: Sam Moore, Tony Browne, Nick Barnes, Rob Denness, Paul Jones.

For comparison, here is the 2006-7 Team of the Season: Whincup, Adlington, Cumberbatch, Glover, Ross, Thorogood, Allman, Clarke, Jarrett-Elliott, Matata, Fenwick.

All change, then, with Walid Matata being the sole survivor from the previous season. In contrast, last season’s Team of the Year had no fewer than SIX survivors from the 2005-6 TotY. Interestingly, only six of the 16 players named in this season’s TotY were Steve Lovell signings, with the other ten having played under Clive Walker. The major survivor from the Walker era has been Nicky Humphrey, who easily clocked up the most minutes – 3,364 - on the pitch of any of the 37 players who appeared for the First Team, (but he seems a relative part-timer when his contribution is compared with the 4,340 minutes for which Simon Glover performed last season).

One thing that Steve Lovell did early on was to shore up the defence with the key signings of goalkeeper Jamie Riley and centre-half and skipper Sean Ray. I mention Sean in this context as I’m sure that he made a major contribution to Jamie’s remarkable defensive record of only 21 goals conceded in 23 games. This record is put into context by the 31 goals let in by Sam Moore, in 14 games, and Jake Whincup’s record of 12 conceded in 9. Statistically, Jamie’s rate of conceding a goal every 99 minutes is far superior to that of any other ‘keeper we’ve had in the past three seasons; next-best is Jake, who was beaten once every 61 minutes during his two seasons with us.

Here is the full list: -

Riley – 99 minutes per goal

Whincup – 61

Overland – 60

Seitsonen – 54

Glover – 50

Moore – 41

Wietecha – 41

There was no single striker who dominated the goal scoring this time, (as George Fenwick had done with his 18 goals in the 2006-7 season). Mark Lovell just edged it as top scorer, with 9 goals (to add to the 5 he scored, earlier in the season, for Dover). It was a season in which the goals were spread fairly evenly throughout the team, as the following breakdown shows,

9 – Mark Lovell

8 – Walid Matata

7 – Jimmy Bottle, Paul Jones, Danny Lye

5 – Rob Denness, Mitchell Sherwood

3 – Sean Ray

In terms of strike-rate, Ashford’s three main forwards could barely be separated, with Walid Matata just shading it, with a goal every 249 minutes, from Paul Jones and Mark Lovell, who both scored at a rate of one every 252 minutes. Walid’s return over the past two seasons, however, is 16 goals at a rate of one every 220 minutes, and this is a rate that is second only to that of George Fenwick, for the three-year period for which I’ve been monitoring such things. Here is the full list; (notice that Jimmy Bottle, Danny Lye and Mitch Sherwood also sneak into this list, the qualification criteria being a minimum of 500 minutes’ play and a better scoring rate than Shaun Bradshaw): -

George Fenwick – 177 minutes per goal

Walid Matata – 220

Nick Wright – 221

Luke Coleman – 228

Paul Jones – 252

Mark Lovell – 252

Richard Sinden – 276

Adam O’Neill – 289

Jimmy Bottle – 337

Danny Lye – 357

Rob Denness – 368

Steve Sodje – 369

Joby Thorogood – 369

Mitchell Sherwood – 471

Shaun Bradshaw – 487

Finally, in terms of playing performance, the Milton Keynes Bowl, which is awarded annually to the player who receives most Man of the Match awards in away matches during the season, was won by Paul Jones. Jonah was Man of the Match on four occasions. His nearest rivals were Jimmy Bottle, Ryan Briggs, Lee Hockey and Danny Lye, who each picked up two awards.

Aside from happenings on the pitch, home league attendances showed a slight increase, for the second successive season. The average gate was 251, which compares with 243 for the season before, and 208 for the season before that. In terms of the median figure, which gives a truer reflection of the team’s support, given that it eliminates the very high and very low figures, the respective numbers for the past three seasons have been 174, 198 and 210. It is encouraging that these figures show attendances going in the right direction, but The Management will be hoping to see a more substantial improvement next season. Most fans, on the other hand, will be hoping for a better showing in the cup competitions. Ashford fell at the first fence in all four cup competitions entered in 2007-8, and the rather pathetic aggregate cup gate of 518 would have been even lower if we hadn’t been drawn at home in three of the four competitions. Even so, this isn’t the worst aggregate cup gate we’ve had in recent seasons – in 2004-5, the solitary home cup tie was watched by a mere 139 people.

The gaffer talks....

Town supremo Steve Lovell talks about the busy Easter period of football and a battling point away at the champions elect.

With four points the target from the two Easter games to realistically keep any play-offs hopes alive, the Nuts and Bolts failed at the first hurdle when they lost 2-1 at home to Whyteleafe on Good Friday and Lovell was understandably disappointed with the result.

“I thought the performance was Ok but in the end the conditions done for us. The wind and the pitch stopped us from the playing the football we like to play. They only really had two chances and they took them. We didn’t really do enough in the game to get a positive result and that was disappointing because if we had got the win, with the results going the way they did around us , then we would have been in a great position.”

“We put plenty of effort into the game but in the end we didn’t create enough chances and we got punished.”

Town responded superbly on Easter Monday to hold runaway leaders Dover Athletic on their own turf in front of a bumper 1,324 crowd and Lovell, despite being happy with the performance, thought they could have done even better.

“On Monday the conditions were totally different and the pitch was in great shape so we were able to play football and it showed. At the end of the game Dover knew they had been up against it. We played very, very well in the first half and could have gone in at a break a couple of goals up. In the second-half I thought we didn’t pass it as well as we could have and when we got into good areas we gave it back to them too easily. But saying that everything went against us in the second-half.”

“After the debate around the Lye goal I thought the referee tried to even it up and we didn’t get any decisions going our way. How it wasn’t a penalty when Walid was brought down I will never know. I was talking to the players, fans and even John Keister after the game and they all said it was a definite penalty and probably a sending off because Walid was in.”

Lovell changed the side and the formation around a bit for the Dover game, recalling Walid Matata to the frontline, with Mark Lovell playing in the hole and reverted to three centre-backs and the manager thought everyone played their roles well, especially the backline.

“We knew Dover would come at us in the second-half and they did but we stood firm. And I have no doubt that there is no better defensive duo than Sean Ray and Danny Lye in this league, they were immense along with Daniel Brathwaite, all three were solid and gave the rest of the team confidence. I changed it up front so that Walid and Jonah [Paul Jones] would run the channels with Mark [Lovell] linking up play from midfield and I thought it worked. With a bit of luck we could have had a few more goals in the first-half.”

A battling point for Town and one that Lovell thinks will stand them in good stead for the future.

“It was a good point and one that we can build on, but if we could have been a bit brighter at the start of the second-half and capitalised on their slow start we could have won the game.”

by Sam Dixon

Coming Tomorrow .. The Ryan Briggs Interview .. ..

Team news and transfer news pre Whyteleafe

After the pitch passed a 10 am pitch inspection Town manager Steve Lovell has revealed one new signing and one departure from Homelands.

Right-back Toby Ashmore has joined from Deal Town until the end of the season and goes straight into the squad for todays clash. Also in the squad is Joe Hitchings who has been recalled from his loan spell at Tunbridge Wells.

Midfielder Nick Barnes has left Homelands to join Dartford in search of first team football.

For the game against Whyteleafe Lovell will be without the services of defenders Lee Hockey, who will be out for another two weeks unless they can get a protective mask for his broken nose and Nick Humphrey who has gone down with an illness. Ashmore will take his place a right-back and Hitchings goes straight back into the squad.

Lee Spiller is still on loan at Sittingbourne but can be recalled at anytime.

Player interview..... Mark Lovell

One of Steve Lovell’s first moves as Ashford Town manager was to bring his son, Mark in from Dover Athletic to add some much needed firepower to the Nuts and Bolts frontline. The move is already looking like a shrewd one.

Since arriving at Homelands striker Lovell has regularly found the net and instantly struck-up a lethal partnership with Paul Jones, and the striker has no regrets about leaving the Dover promotion bandwagon.

“I found myself on the bench at Dover so when the chance came up to come here I jumped at it and it has been brilliant. The team spirit is superb and growing all the time, and from a personal point of view I’m scoring goals in a team that will get stronger and stronger.”

The Lovell-Jones partnership has yielded eleven goals so far this term and Lovell believes they compliment each other well on the pitch.

“Jonah [Jones] is a good lad, he holds the ball up really well but he is quite deceptive really because despite all his hold-up play he has great pace and loves running at defenders. He’s great to play up there with, actually he has been giving me a bit of stick saying that he has setup 90% of my goals and is waiting for me to line one up for him, but I’m claiming an assist for his goal against Dover. I knocked it down before he put it in from 35-yards!”

With promotion possibly out of reach for Ashford this term despite a marvellous back-to-back wins over Metropolitan Police and Walton & Hersham, Lovell is convinced next season will be a totally different story and believes the players will have to perform to be part of the plans for next season.

“Everyone has a feeling that next season will be a good one. I know the manager wanted a play-off place when he came here but that may not happen even though we will not give up. We certainly haven’t under-achieved but we know next season we will be a threat. We need to keep performing though for the rest of this campaign as there will be many places up for grabs next season and we will need to be geared-up from the beginning.”

If the strike partnership of Lovell and Jones can continue into next season then the Nuts and Bolts will be in with a shout if they don’t reach their goal this term.

Montserrat set for Homelands retreat

Ashford Town are set to continue their unique link-up with the Montserrat national team as the Islanders will return to use the Homelands facilities this Saturday (22nd March) in preparation for their World Cup qualifying encounter against Suriname.

After international football arrived at the home of the Nuts and Bolts in October when Ashford beat Montserrat 4-0, the club have kept in close contact with Claude Hogan, head of the Montserrat FA, and these arrangements has been announced.

The international performers will arrive at Homelands and take part in a two hour training session under the guidance of their assistant manager Robert Andrew and our very own Steve Lovell. The players will stay overnight in Ashford before leaving for Port of Spain, Trinidad via Barbados to play the most important game of their careers.

Unfortunately due to Ashford’s hectic Easter period the sides are unable to fit in a game, but plans are being made for another international night at Homelands in the near future.

Mr Hogan is delighted to link-up and had this to say.

“I would like to thank you for sharing this historic moment with us. Ashford have been identified as our UK partners. Hopefully we can build further on this partnership, but I am happy that we'll be able to share the publicity and spotlight on our world cup event with Homelands Stadium.”

“I am sorry that we did not have the opportunity of a game situation but I believe the retreat to Ashford Town and the interaction with you and your colleagues would be a boost to the players morale, especially since their regular camps were affected during these past few months.”

“Again, thanks a million from Montserrat. We plan to make our people and our friends and associates proud.”

All at Ashford Town Football Club would like to wish Montserrat all the very best in their quest for World Cup glory.

After two demoralising defeats manager Steve Lovell praises his side for bouncing back with a fine victory over promotion chasing Metropolitan Police at the weekend.

A header from captain Sean Ray secured the points for the Nuts and Bolts as they turned in an excellent second-half display, and Lovell was happy with the performance.

“It was a good performance on Saturday against a good side. We defended very well as a team and created quite a few chances. The previous two games were very strange because we played nothing like the team we had seen for the 12 games before that. But it shows the character of the squad to bounce back with a great.”

With promotion probably out of the question Lovell is already looking forward to next season, and is challenging his current crop of players to show their worth as he looks towards a promotion charge next term.

“Next season is going to be a very exciting one for everyone connected to Ashford, on and off the field. There will be some changes in personnel in the playing department. A lot will depend on the performances of the individuals between now and the end of the season.”

“We have quite a good side at the moment but I’m sure the squad will need strengthening and if we are going to reach our goal next year it’s important to have strength in depth and that is something I’m going to concentrate on in the close season.”

Back to the current campaign and this Saturday when the Nuts and Bolts travel to Walton & Hersham looking to avenge the 3-1 defeat at Homelands last month. Lovell is expecting another tough encounter.

“Walton & Hersham are another good team but I thought in the home game we were right in the contest but we gifted them three goals and were punished for it. I think it will a different story this weekend, we were missing three key players in the home game so I’m hoping we can reverse the scoreline.”

“As for team news, the squad will be the same as last Saturday with possibly the addition of Lee Hockey who could play with s protective mask after breaking his nose a few weeks ago.”

200 Club Winners:

The latest batch of winners are