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Tonbridge Angels manager Jay Saunders determined to keep pushing for play-offs

Jay Saunders won’t allow Tonbridge’s season to fizzle out.

Angels are eight points off the National South play-off places in 11th spot after blowing a 3-0 lead to draw at home to Slough last weekend.

Tonbridge Angels boss Jay Saunders. Picture: David Couldridge
Tonbridge Angels boss Jay Saunders. Picture: David Couldridge

Mid-table would represent good progress for a club who’ve battled to stay up in recent seasons.

But boss Saunders, who takes Angels to St Albans on Saturday (3pm), believes there’s plenty to play for.

“I won’t give up on the play-offs,” he said.

“I told the boys after the game on Saturday I want us to be pushing. I don’t want our season to fall away.

“We’re still in a decent position and if I have to mix things up and look at other players, so be it.

“I’m not one to rest and go, ‘OK, if we fall away it doesn’t matter’ because it does matter.

“And if you allow that to happen, suddenly you’re looking over your shoulder at the other end of the table.

“That’s the way this league is. We must make sure we’re pushing.

“Look at Eastbourne last season. They won six in a row at the end of the season and ended up in the play-offs. That’s what can happen.

“You only need to put a run of three or four wins together to be right up there but that’s been our problem - consistency.

“If you go back a couple of weeks, we beat Eastbourne 3-0 and played really well and then we lost 5-0 to Weymouth.”

Jordan Greenidge’s double and a Devonte Aransibia effort put Tonbridge in charge against Slough but the visitors hit back in the second half.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Saunders, who said: “It felt like a defeat.

“To be honest, it’s still getting under my skin a bit now. On the day, we weren’t good enough, defensively.

“I was pleased with the goals we scored - all three were from patterns we’d worked on - but to go 3-0 up and not win the game, it’s hard to get your head around.

“Once they got it back to 3-2, you know what’s happening.

“I’ve been there as a player and a manager and it’s hard to stop when a team have that momentum.

“We were on a run of three defeats so before the game you’re thinking, ‘Let’s not lose’ but the way it panned out, it’s harder to take than a defeat.

“Scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in football, and we’ve scored three, but we’re making individual mistakes and letting in too many goals.

“I think we’ve pretty much scored as many goals as the whole of last season. We want to be entertaining and play good football.

“You can see we’re good on the ball and when we get on the front foot we cause teams problems, but you want that happy medium.”

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