By Matt Harris

There has been no easing into the New Year at Culverden Stadium. Since the Christmas and New Year period, two of the three games played have had a Semi-Final place at stake in the League Cup and the Kent Senior Trophy, and the other was a league encounter against a stubborn Greenwich Borough side that Tunbridge Wells had to work hard to break down before going on to win 5-1. Fortunately, the club had recorded a decent closing month to 2012 in preparation that netted Martin Larkin the Kent League Manager of the Month Award for December.

“The award is obviously not solely won by me,” Larkin quickly points out in his latest chat with www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk. “Credit has to go also to Brad (Sandeman), Paul (Physio), and the players - and
then to those around the club that put so much effort in as well. It’s a club award, really.

“December was a memorable month. We only had three games, but they were big games. The 9-1 win at Cray Valley, for example [this was also Tunbridge Wells’ biggest away win since the club reformed in 1967]. We were simply unplayable in the first half of that game,” Larkin reflects. “Then there was the result away at Binfield in the FA Vase. To go behind so early in extra time and then fight our way back was very pleasing to watch. The win at Ashford in the Kent Senior Trophy was pleasing for obvious reasons, too. We hadn’t played for three weeks, the flu bug had hit us hard, and one or two had enjoyed their Christmas a bit too much…”

So moving into the New Year in good form, The Wells had two cup Quarter Finals to battle through. The first, a League Cup encounter, saw Lordswood catch their visitors out, scoring three in the opening part of the first half, and ending the game with a 4-1 deficit to try to overturn in the second leg at Culverden. The second saw Canterbury visit in the Kent Senior Trophy, and a 3-1 win set Tunbridge Wells up with a Semi Final date at Culverden.

“We were very poor for 35 minutes of the Lordswood game, and to be fair we got punished for it,” Larkin recalls. “Some will say that it was a wake-up call that will keep us on our feet, but I don’t see it like that. I don’t want to work with players that need a wake-up every five or six games - and we impressed that on the players afterwards. The best teams keep going, and that’s what we discuss in training and after games."

Larkin refuses to see the tie as being over, and fully expects his side to give Lordswood a serious challenge for a League Cup Semi Final spot when they come to Culverden.

“We have belief that when we score goals, we score in big numbers. On Saturday against Canterbury, we would have hit five again with the correct officiating decisions, so we are more than capable of scoring three more than them. Like us, they are also involved in Vase action on Saturday, but they have a very long trip back from Spennymoor to contend with, and we will be motivated to put right what happened in the first leg. We will be looking to apply pressure and we will see how they cope.

“For now, though, no one is thinking about the Lordswood game. The full focus is on the FA Vase game. To be fair to my players, they are becoming more and more experienced, and they understand the need to take each game as it comes and put their full effort into the next game.”

Many of the current crop of players have been around for previous lengthy runs in the FA Vase with The Wells – and will remember last year’s 0-1 Fourth Round defeat at home to St Ives Town. Yet this game presents the added challenge: the visitors – Dunston UTS – are the current holders, having won the competition at Wembley last May. Just how big a game does Larkin and his team perceive this one to be?

“The holders of the FA Vase are coming to us to play for a place in the last 16 of a National Competition. That is a round this club has never been to before, so it is certainly the biggest game we have had at home during my tenure here.

“I think the Kent Senior Trophy final a couple of years back still ranks the highest for us as we could have won silverware, but in terms of the team we are playing this has to be the biggest. They’re certainly the best team to visit us – it’s as simple as that. They are a very good side who like to play the ball on the deck. They’re very experienced and physically strong - but as a wise man with a Vase Winners’ medal told me this week, they can only put 11 out on the pitch, and they are just human, like us.

"We need to not downplay our own threats - we have some serious weapons in our team, and the job will be to cause them as much trouble as they may cause us.

“Ultimately, players and managers come and go, but the club remains, so it’s important that in your time at the club you develop a legacy. I believe we are doing that, and the team is up there with the best teams the club has had - especially given the circumstances we work under compared with previous teams.

“By winning on Saturday we will have done something no one else has ever done in a Tunbridge Wells shirt, and that’s the motivation. In ten years’ time when the fans or manager talk about it, we want them to be talking about trying to eclipse us and our achievements."

Win or lose in the Vase, the exploits of last Saturday ensure Silverware remains a possibility with now only Erith & Belvedere standing between the club and a second bite at the Kent Senior Trophy cherry for Martin Larkin and many of his players.

“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t use that [the potential Semi Final opponent] as a motivator on Saturday. There are obvious links between the two clubs with the player movement this summer and subsequent returns to Culverden, and we are very much looking forward to it, although it is a while off!”

To fill in the gap will be a series of Kent League games (and ideally a couple more Vase matches). While the cat’s been occupied with Cup involvement, the mice have been racking up points in the League, and a gap now exists between Tunbridge Wells in mid-table and those sitting in the top four where the club would like to be. Have all the cup games been a distraction, or is Larkin confident it can all be taken in its stride and that the ground will be made up?

“The league is the one disappointment - not because of our points’ total, but because of the number of games we have played. I am hoping we don’t have any more postponements, otherwise we will be playing twice a week until May and that will be tough in terms of us hitting our goals. We know we are as good as anyone in this league - we just need to maintain fitness.”

And speaking of hitting goals, Larkin concluded his discussion with some thoughts about the effect of the £30,000 donated to the club by a mystery benefactor for the pitch to be improved. 

“It will probably mean the difference between keeping certain players or losing them,” he said candidly. “I’ve got a great group here, who have never once asked for money when they have all been offered significant sums elsewhere. But the pitch is the one thing they do have a moan about.

“Our away record is great, so if we can improve the pitch 50% and our results improve with it that would mean the difference between finishing fourth or fifth and challenging for the title. It’s as simple as that. We now need to spend the money wisely!”