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Cray Valley boss Kevin Watson is refusing to get carried away despite his team’s impressive 6-0 FA Cup win over VCD on Saturday.
New signings Connor Dymond and Ade Yusuff were among the goals as the Millers set up a home tie with Burgess Hill in the next round.
But Watson warned that game counts for nothing ahead of their Isthmian South East opener at title favourites Hastings this weekend.
“It was nice to get that under our belts, but it doesn’t get us three points or count towards anything in the league,” said Watson.
“It was a pleasing performance. It was a surprise to everybody as VCD are a good outfit and have a good team, so you don’t expect to win by that margin.
“It’s been a long pre-season. We’ve been back for nine weeks as we didn’t know when the league would re-start so we had to make sure we were ready.”
Cray Valley certainly made the step up from the Southern Counties East League look a small one last term. They were still in the hunt for the title when the season was declared null and void in March.
“We were on a good run, we were second on points per game and third in the table,” recalled Watson. “We were disappointed because we were looking at least to make the play-offs but we have to put that behind us now.
“We can’t affect the past, we can only determine the future.”
That future looks bright with 26-year-old Dymond making the move from nearby Welling United and forward Yusuff, who flourished under Watson at Chatham, linking up with his former boss once again.
“I know both of them very well,” said Watson. “Obviously I worked with Ade before and I’ve known Connor a long time – I actually used to teach him at school!
“We’ve got the right calibre of player with their quality and personality.
“We’ve kept the nucleus of what we had last year. There’s two players that have gone so we’re trying to have that consistency with the squad as we work hard with them tactically.
“The club are aspiring and we have to try to match what they are doing off the field, with the improved changing rooms and ground developments.
“People work hard on a voluntary basis and we have to work hard to match that.”
Watson declines to set targets for the season ahead – “I wouldn’t like to put any kind of flag in the ground” – and he’ll take it game by game.
“It’s a long season and if you to achieve things a lot has to go right,” he noted.
“We’ve assembled what we feel is a better squad in strength and depth than we had at the start of last season, and that’s no disrespect to those players.
“Last year was our debut season at this level so we were a bit unknown. I’m sure teams know more about us now and our performances. As we had a good year, they’ll look out for a bit more now.
“We’ve got a tough fixture on Saturday at Hastings, who are the league favourites, which is understandable.
“They’ve got a good set-up and are well resourced. We drew on the opening day last season so this is a reverse fixture. It will be a tough test but we’ll prepare right for it.”
First four league games: Sat Sep 19: Hastings (a), Sat Sep 26: Sittingbourne (h), Sat Oct 3: Chichester (a), Tue Oct 6: Faversham (h).
