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Life in management appeared a doddle for Bearsted boss Kevin Stevens after his first match in charge - it’s proved anything but over the past decade.
A 10-0 thumping on September 7, 2013, was the ideal start for Stevens. Over more than 400 competitive matches, there’s been promotion, a Cup Final and an FA Vase run for Bearsted under his long stewardship - along with plenty of lows.
“I was running the under-18s at the time,” recalled Stevens, who led the club, which is based near Maidstone, to Kent Invicta League title success in 2016.
“We had Crockenhill first, beat them 10-0 and I thought ‘This is easy!’. Obviously, that was a great start.
“It took us three seasons to get out of the league below but we won that and we’ve got in the Premier Division, where we sort of have established ourselves as a regular.”
More than 10 years on, after his 403rd competitive game, officials at Bearsted arranged a surprise presentation to recognise stalwart Stevens’ longevity at the club after their 1-0 Southern Counties East Premier Division home win against Corinthian last weekend. Defender Daniel Melvin got the contest’s only goal.
It was far from a conventional 1-0 win, either, with more than 12 minutes of stoppage time and the visitors finishing with nine players on the field.
Stevens was presented with a framed shirt with 400 on, a new watch and various other mementos in the clubhouse which dons plenty of photographs of Alessia Russo, the England Lioness who started her career at the club.
Asked if he had expected to be in charge this long, Stevens, who’s also Bearsted’s groundsman, replied: “Definitely not!
“I retired two years ago in February. Me and my wife, Lesley, were going to move to a little cottage in Somerset somewhere, out in the sticks with the dog and just settle down.
“But I’ve carried on going. We both love it.”
Winning the Kent Invicta League title, a season after a second-placed finish, have been among the highlights for Stevens, as were a run to the 2015 SCEFL Challenge Cup Final and a 2018/19 FA Vase run.
“We got to the last 32 of the Vase in the 2018/19 season and we were unfortunate to lose,” said Stevens, whose troops suffered a 2-1 extra-time defeat to Abbey Rangers.
“I love the Vase and the buzz you get from 800-odd teams starting and getting to the last 32. What it brought the club exposure-wise was fantastic and you had that game to look forward to each month.
“Winning the league below was good and there’s even other games I could pick out. There’s so many games I could pick out where we didn’t expect to win for whatever reason and the boys put in a great performance back in the day.
“There’s lots of stand-out moments.”
Stevens and his wife are now integral figures at the outfit which is based at the picturesque Honey Lane ground.
He added: “I have made loads of friends. My wife, Lesley, is everywhere with me, helps with everything, comes to every game and is always here.
“It’s a great management team that I have got and the players are great - the players always are, to be fair.
“I’m not just saying that. They are such a nice group of lads.
“Since the new chairman, Jamie Houston, has come in, he has led us really well.
“Hopefully, the club is moving forward.”
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On the award he won, Kevin said: “That was for the pitches. I’ve put in an awful lot of work since I retired into trying to make it look nice. That was a shock as well.
“I ended up not being able to go and, when Lesley rang me and said ‘You have won’, I was just like ‘Wow.’ It was a bit of a shock - like this was. I didn’t know any of this was happening.
“Since I retired from the fire brigade, I’ve worked up here, doing the ground. I’m here literally every day, probably for too many hours!”
But Stevens is far from the division’s only long-serving boss. Earlier this term, Kennington’s Dan Scorer went beyond the 300-match mark while Michael Golding at Corinthian and Adam Woodward at promotion-chasing Erith Town have been around for many seasons.
“It gets more and more professional,” Stevens said of the division. “Players are dropping down from leagues above and making it an even stronger league.
“The way everyone goes and scouts other teams and prepares properly has improved. It’s getting harder as it becomes a more professional league, which makes it more enjoyable. It’s nice, putting all that time and effort in and then seeing if we can get a result on a Saturday or a Tuesday night.
“We do play nice football. We have got ambitions of, hopefully, progressing and getting better. Maybe we’ll move up at some stage. But this is a tough league.
“As soon as they announced the play-offs, I knew everyone would be spending more.”
Indeed, despite two defeats to big-spending Faversham, the Bears earned plaudits for their displays in those losses.
Stevens said: “We normally raise our games against the better sides, to be fair, and give them a game. Faversham - although Lydd beat them last week - they’re near the top and probably the best team.
“It’s nice to know we can go out, compete and stand a chance of maybe beating them and who knows how we will get on after 40 games?”
After finishing 13th last term, Stevens wants to improve.
He said: “I think 12th is the highest we have finished in this league in seven seasons.
“Only once or twice we have been down towards the bottom around Christmas-time and then there’s a bit of a panic.
“But we always got away from there quite quickly.
“This season, we want to be in the top 10, 100%, and then with four play-off places, you just never know. I think there’s some good teams - Lydd, Erith Town, Glebe and Corinthian.
“But we’re confident in what we do and we’ll see where it might take us.”
Mid-table Bearsted visit Holmesdale in the league this Saturday, having suffered a Second-Round Challenge Cup 2-0 home defeat to Deal on Tuesday.
