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FA Vase Final: Cray Valley boss Kevin Watson says his players deserve all the credit for getting to Wembley

Manager Kevin Watson doesn't feel he's achieved anything by taking Cray Valley to the FA Vase final.

Watson will lead the Millers out at Wembley on Sunday for the biggest game in the club's history.

But he insists it's all about the players who have won through nine rounds to give themselves a shot at glory.

Cray Valley manager Kevin Watson Picture: Chris Davey
Cray Valley manager Kevin Watson Picture: Chris Davey

Watson said: "It's the ultimate arena for them to play in. If you said to them ‘what stadium in the world would you like to play in?’ I can’t see why most wouldn’t say Wembley.

"But I find it quite difficult. It’s really easy to exclude myself from everything because I struggle to feel it’s an achievement by me.

"Some people might find it hard to comprehend that but I don’t feel I’ve achieved anything.

"The players are achieving it, they’re getting the benefit, they’re playing at Wembley, it’s all about the players – which I’m absolutely content with. I think that’s brilliant.

"I didn’t go into management to achieve things for me, that’s not my aspiration. I haven’t got aspirations of managing much higher because I’ve got my career and football management isn’t a career for me, it’s a hobby."

Watson, though, takes his role very seriously and has already led Cray Valley to the Southern Counties East League title and promotion this season.

He said: "I put a lot of pressure on myself because I took a pressurised job. When I spoke to the owners, I knew the club’s aspirations.

"I don’t think there’s many jobs as pressurised in the sense that we have to win every game.

Cray Valley's players celebrate their semi-final win over Canterbury City Picture: Keith Gillard
Cray Valley's players celebrate their semi-final win over Canterbury City Picture: Keith Gillard

"When I first came into the club, we lost eight games on the bounce and I keep mentioning that because I think people can be too short-sighted with things.

"Eighteen months ago, I lost eight games on the bounce but now we’ve won the league and we’re in the FA Vase final.

"I think a bigger test of character was when we lost eight games on the bounce, it’s not now.

"Those times of losing and things not going well, that may be around the corner, that may be next season. What am I going to do? It’s that old cliché about ‘never too high, never too low’, you have to stay grounded with it.

"But I want the players to love it, I want them to thrive off it."

Getting to Wembley is big enough prize but there's still a game to play, with Chertsey Town standing between Cray Valley and the Vase itself.

"I need to emphasise that to the players," Watson said. "The reward is to play there; when we got into the latter rounds of the competition you want to get to the final because you want that reward to have played there, but we can’t rest on our laurels.

"To win it is quite different to coming the runner-up in anything, to be No.1 or to be No.2. We’re not just going there for a day out.

Cray Valley manager Kevin Watson Picture: Dave Budden
Cray Valley manager Kevin Watson Picture: Dave Budden

"Yes, I want the players to enjoy it but they will enjoy it more if they win. That’s the nature of football.

"We need to approach things in the right way and I do think we’ve got that winning mentality because we’ve had to have it all season. Every single game we’ve gone into, the expectation has been to win.

"It’s not arrogance, it’s not disrespect to the opposition and we haven’t won all of the games but that has been the mentality.

"You have no given right to win any game of football but the boys have grown as a collective group and they have that mentality to try to win.

"The opposition are there on merit. Anybody playing in the final of a competition that had 700 entrants at the beginning of the season, both teams are there on merit so it’ll be extremely difficult.

"We’ve seen them play and they’re a very good, experienced side."

Chertsey are also on for a double, having won the Combined Counties League Premier Division under manager Dave Anderson.

Both clubs picked up 91 league points this season, with Cray Valley scoring 108 goals to Chertsey's 97.

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