Cheer the Stones to the title! Bartlett calls for one last push

Wealdstone manager Gordon Bartlett has called on everyone at the club to help get them over the line tonight at Margate.

The Stones travel to Kent this evening knowing victory will guarantee the Ryman Premier title resides at Grosvenor Vale for the next 12 months.

Sounds simple, but the reality is far from it and boss Bartlett has been put through the wringer as he watches his team finally try to seal the deal.

Three times in the last week the Ryman League’s runaway leaders have run out expectant of being crowned champions, a fervour whipped up by their large and demanding fan base.

Yet Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Grays courtesy of Scott McGleish’s late leveller still leaves them tantalisingly short of both the title and the place in the Conference South.

In the wake of the draw Bartlett called for a re-focusing of minds on to the more immediate matter of the three points down in Kent.

He said: “Too many people have been looking at what is at the end of it rather than actually doing the job.

“I’m sure it happens everywhere, but there has been a lot of excitement about what might happen, but do the job first and then get excited.”

Tuesday’s action pits Bartlett head-to-head with an old friend of his in former AFC Wimbledon boss Terry Brown, now manager at Gate.

The connection between the two goes back to their playing days at hayes Town when Bartlett’s wing play provided the ammunition for centre-forward Brown to grab the glory.

In the interests of his call for focus Bartlett was keen to play down their rivalry insisting both he and Brown would be concentrating on the job in hand.

He added: “Terry is not going to want to do me a favour, but to be honest I never think about the personalities involved.

“As manager and manager you can be mates you can be enemies or whatever, you just go and do your job on the day.

“Terry will want to do it for Margate football club and it will have nothing to do with his relationship with me.

“I am certainly going there trying to win the championship for Wealdstone and that is bugger all to do with Terry.”