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Rochester United have an FA Vase derby day to look forward to after a big weekend win – but before that comes a massive league game this Saturday.
Matt Hume’s Southern Counties East Division 1 side are pushing for promotion this season and thrashed Welling Town 4-0 last Saturday to reach the Vase first round proper and book a trip to Lordswood next month.
Ahead of that, Hume’s team are facing some tough games in the league. They suffered a midweek defeat against Staplehurst Monarchs on Tuesday and play another high-flying side in Croydon at home this Saturday.
The manager, speaking before their loss to Staplehurst, said: “These games are massive and if we can get some points from those then we’ll be cooking.
“More importantly, I feel good about the side. We’re not playing games and getting away with it and being a bit lucky, we are under-scoring in our performances. If anything, we’re just not quite finishing teams off as quickly as we should do.
“Saturday was a good win but we did make a bit of hard work of it. With the amount of possession we had and the chances we created, we should still be making it easier for ourselves but we’re playing really well.”
Goals last Saturday came from Tom Loynes, Mack Reilly (2) and Lucas Payne.
They lost 2-0 at home to the Monarchs in the week, with both goals coming in the second half.
Looking ahead to the visit of Croydon, Hume said: “They are a bit of an unknown to me. They always are at this stage, you never know what kind of team they have put together.
“They are coming to us and we expect them to be decent, they are up there and have done all right so far but with what we have seen so far I feel really confident that if we play well we should get something.”
Croydon sit second in the table after being knocked off top spot last night (Wednesday) by Forest Hill Park, after their 3-1 win over SC Thamesmead.
SCEFL Division 1 table
Hume has some key players missing, picking up some big injuries of late, which he hopes doesn’t get any worse.
He said: “We are good at the moment but can’t afford to get any more because then I think it might start to weaken us.
“Harvey Brown, Luis Dos Santos and our right-back, Tom Webb, are all very good players and all three are injured at the moment. We also lost John Brown, who we thought was going to be with us but has decided to go to Greenways.
“In the last few weeks we’ve lost four players but we have got by, signed a couple of new players and they have come in and done a good job but I just hope we don’t get any more key players injured.
“You always need a bit of luck and hopefully we can get through this.”
The FA Vase game at Lordswood is scheduled for Saturday, October 19.
Hume added: “It gets quite exciting at this stage now. Lordswood are a good side, a tough game, but that’s something to look forward to, a local derby as well.
“It’s an exciting game and a free hit for us, a good chance to test ourselves against a team from the league above and show us where we are.”
