Faversham joint-manager Phil Miles on Lilywhites progress and Ryan Huckle fitness
Published: 06:00, 20 September 2019
Phil Miles admits this season is already proving a more enjoyable one than the last with Faversham.
The Lilywhites sit 11th in Isthmian South East after beating Sittingbourne 1-0 on Saturday before losing 2-1 at home to VCD on Tuesday.
Seven points in the league may well have been more had it not been for costly errors.
Joint-manager Miles said: “We’re setting ourselves high standards. We have to go into every game believing you can get something.
“It’s a good group of players. It’s already been more enjoyable this season than last.
“We’re creating chances, our work rate is fantastic, we’re putting everything into the shift but then we’re making silly mistakes that are costing games.
“Our performances most of the season have been fantastic – it’s just short spells in games where we’ve been poor and got punished.
“Generally, though, we’re really pleased with the start.
“We as a group want to try and get into the play-offs. That’s the golden chalice.
“We (Miles and Danny Chapman) came in with a three-to-four-year plan and sometimes managers don’t get that long. We’re still working to that.”
After a clean sheet at the weekend, Faversham thought they had snatched a point in the 85th minute against VCD before conceding a second goal with three minutes remaining.
“We deserved the win on Saturday,” Miles said. “We could have had more goals and we defended fantastically.
“I think people have underestimated us. You can see by our results that even when we are losing it’s only by the odd goal.
“We deserved something from the game Tuesday night. VCD are a good side and had pace and energy but we played well again.
“We were 1-0 down and we got ourselves back into the game and it was just that little bit of game management at the end and decision making that let us down. We got caught in the wrong area and were punished.”
Miles also revealed Ryan Huckle is set to be sidelined for much of the season after learning the extent of the injury that forced him off during August’s FA Cup defeat at Tooting & Mitcham.
He explained: “Ryan got the results back from his scan and he’s got a full ligament tear on the side of his knee.
“He was upbeat, he’s going to try and get surgery as soon as possible.
“Realistically we’re looking at six months out.”
Faversham travel to Sevenoaks in the league on Saturday.
Read more: All the latest Kent sport news
More by this author
Cameron Hogwood