"I ALWAYS BELIEVED WE COULD TURN IT AROUND"
Wands Manager, Ian Jenkins, On How The Season Is Going
By Trevor Mulligan, Friday 5 March 2010

Summing up the season so far, manager Ian Jenkins told me this evening, "The team realised that they were under-achieving before Christmas, but I always believed we could turn it around. We've now won five out of our last seven games."

Jenko continued, "Early on, we were letting in some really soft goals, but we've tightened up the defence and midfield and they're doing well."

There's been a few changes in the Wands squad recently, the most notable being Tyrone Sterling moving to Hastings United, Steve Aris hanging up his boots and Ross Lover moving to an uncustomary right back position where he seems to have settled in well.

"Yeah, Tyrone's gone off to Hastings. We wish him well there. He wanted regular first team football , which he wasn't always getting with us," said Ian. He added, "It was a bit the same with Steve. He has work commitments and couldn't justify himself sitting on the bench when he could be working on his business. He's not gone anywhere else and he's still available to us if we need him."

I asked Ian about the injury Ross Lover picked up against Ashford in midweek and he said, "Rossy will be out for a couple of weeks. There was a lot of swelling on his foot, but he's had an x-ray and he's done a bit to his ligaments."

Which brought me neatly on to the signing of TJ Moncur. "TJ is in the squad for the Wealdstone game. If we can keep him until the end of the season it'll be good. He's got a good level of experience behind him." Ian said.

Asked how he sees the rest of the season panning out, Ian told me, "If we can get a couple of wins behind us in the next three or four games, and other results go our way, then we should be on the road to safety. After that, we'll see where it takes us.

"Maybe we can still get in amongst the play-off places. That'll be a bonus. But even a good win over Wealdstone will put us on 41 points and put us in the top half of the table. That'll be okay, because people can then see us all the time in the league table on Sky Sports News."

Even though the Wands lost out at Tonbridge a couple of weeks ago, Jenko said that he was impressed with our supporters' singing. "It was fantastic. I couldn't believe it when our supporters started singing 'You're not singing anymore' at the Tonbridge supporters when we came back from two down. Brilliant!" he enthused.

Jenko also added that he was pleased to see so many Cray supporters at Boreham Wood. "There were supporters there who we didn't recognise, but they were wearing amber and black scarves and cheering the team on. The players appreciate that. So do Joe (Francis) and me. " he said.

Finishing off, Ian said that it would be nice to get into the final of one of the remaining cups. "Either the Kent or the London Senior. Either will do me," he said.

After a shaky first half to the season, things appear to be coming right at last for the Cray boss. Another trophy in the cabinet via one of the cups - neither of which has ever been won by Cray - would be the cherry on the icing at the end of a difficult campaign. But, for me, I'll be happy to see the Wands still eating a slice of the Ryman Premier League cake this time next season.