Kennington manager Dan Scorer takes charge of his 350th game when his side face Erith & Belvedere in Southern Counties East
Published: 07:06, 10 August 2024
Updated: 07:06, 10 August 2024
Dan Scorer takes charge of his 350th match as Kennington manager today.
Scorer, boss since 2014, chalks up his latest milestone when Ton host relegated Erith & Belvedere in the Southern Counties East Premier Division (3pm).
And after league and FA Cup defeats in their first two games of the new season, there’s only one way Scorer wants to mark the occasion.
“Hopefully we’ll enjoy the day with three points,” he said.
“That’s all I want. I’m not interested in anything else.
“As a group, as a club, we’re desperate to get those first three points and hopefully it gives us a bit of momentum to kick on.
“We didn’t get our first three points until October last year which is mad.
“Psychologically, as soon as you get those three points, it gives everyone a lift.
“We’ve got higher ambitions for this season than we did last.
“It’s OK feeling deflated about losing in the FA Cup and on the opening day but at this point it doesn’t make too much difference because we’re three points off the leaders as things stand.
“Defeat doesn’t define your season so you’ve got to put a positive spin on as much as you can and hope the group are prepared to go and get a result.”
Kennington lost 2-0 at home to Tunbridge Wells in their league opener, with Scorer feeling his side were “overcome by high emotions” in their desire to start with a win.
They were much-improved in the FA Cup extra preliminary round at Larkfield & New Hythe last Saturday but lost 2-1, Kyron Lightfoot pulling a goal back in the second half.
Scorer said: “We’ve missed two or three key players in both games but there wasn’t much in the FA Cup game.
“Full credit to Larkfield, they got two goals in two minutes, which completely sucker-punched us.
“We were much-improved in the second half and got the goal but we couldn’t quite find the equaliser to get a replay.
“But it was an improvement, which is all you can ask for on the back of a disappointing opening-day performance.”
Kennington visit title favourites Faversham in their first midweek game on Tuesday (7.45pm).
Scorer is looking forward to seeing Lilywhites boss Tommy Warrilow and No.2 Alex O’Brien, having got to know them well during their time at Ashford, where Ton groundshare.
“I had a really good relationship with them,” said Scorer.
“It’ll be good to go toe-to-toe with them because we enjoyed our pre-season games with them when they were at Ashford.
“I used to enjoy catching up with them every week after training, too.
“I think Faversham have probably got even more than this year in terms of quality and depth, so I fully expect them to go all the way.”
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Craig Tucker