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Joint-manager James Rogers on Lydd Town’s 4-2 victory at title favourites Faversham | Lydders ready for Punjab rematch after ‘mickey-taking’ TikTok video
05:00, 27 October 2023
James Rogers praised Lydd’s ruthless streak after thumping Southern Counties East title favourites Faversham for the second time this season.
Now, they’re ready for a rematch with a Punjab side who knocked them out of the FA Vase last weekend after Rogers was alerted to a ‘mickey-taking’ TikTok video.
The Lydders won 4-2 at Salters Lane on Tuesday night, to go with a 4-1 home victory in August, as the big-spending Lilywhites were knocked off top spot by Glebe.
Faversham were on a nine-match winning streak in the league but Rogers’ side had their number again as second-half goals from Charlie Webster, new signing Malachi Hudson (penalty), Ronnie Dolan and Troy Howard secured the points.
Ryan Smith left a family holiday in Dubai to play, flying back on the day of the game, while Rogers, Robbie Dolan and Webster featured despite carrying injuries.
“We know what we’re good at,” said joint-boss Rogers, whose 13th-placed side have games in hand to go third.
“Hudson’s technically very good - he looks after the ball and gets in pockets.
“Faversham play a back three so we had him coming in off the line so their right-sided centre-half has got a decision to make, and I thought at times he was very good.
“He’s intelligent, so he can do that, and Troy we’ve asked to stay wide and get at people.
“To get him on the ball, facing their goal, that’s his strength and he ran them ragged in the second half. They couldn’t stay with him. He’s got pure pace. When you’ve got that, it’s a weapon.
“There were signs of it in the first half but when we turned it over in the second half we were deadly going forward - we were ruthless.
“There’s no magic pill to winning games.
“At this level, it’s getting the right players in.
“You get minimal time on the training pitch so you need intelligent players who can buy in to what you’re doing quickly and we’ve got that.
“Everyone’s pulling in the right direction.
“There’s no magic potion - it’s work rate and desire that get you over the line.”
Lydd lost 3-1 at Punjab in the FA Vase First Round last Saturday.
They’re back there in the league tomorrow with a point to prove after being fired up by social media posts.
“It will be a different game,” said Rogers.
“I’ve seen them play and we know what they’re about.
“We went there with players missing. We’ll get a rest and be hard to beat.
“It’s not going to be like it was on Saturday.
“I’ve seen a few posts taking the mick a little bit.
“Someone showed me a video on TikTok and it’s a bit of a mickey-take, to be honest, and that’s going to be my team-talk.
“I’ll just show the boys the video and it’ll be, ‘Go and beat them, they’re taking the mickey out of you’.
“We went there last week and they were nice people but it’s a little bit disrespectful.
“It’s given us a little bit more fire in our bellies.
“They had a big celebration in the changing room afterwards, playing music, jumping around, hitting walls.
“Congratulations, you won the Vase game but the bread and butter is the league. Let’s see how it goes on Saturday.
“We beat Faversham on Tuesday but we never disrespected them.
“If you act like that, it does come back to bite you.”
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