Vines: January crucial for Terrors (From Surrey Comet)

Vines: January crucial for Terrors

10:04am Monday 4th January 2010

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Joe Vines admits January’s run of three successive home games gives Tooting & Mitcham the perfect opportunity to strengthen their claim on a Ryman Premier play-off spot.

A last-minute Tom Graves equaliser at Kingstonian on Saturday earned the Terrors a 1-1 draw and saw Tooting cling onto their top-five spot.

And with Wealdstone, Billericay Town and Boreham Wood on their way to Imperial Fields this month (after Tuesday's match at Margate), skipper Vines is eying an impressive points haul.

He said: “In this league it is all about momentum and the ability to string a few results together as the league is so tight.

“As everyone is so evenly matched as soon as you lose a few games you could very quickly be in mid-table.

“With Wealdstone on Saturday that is a massive game for us.

“In my opinion they are the best side we have faced this season, and they have games in hand on everybody.

“If we win it would be great, but to be honest I would be happy with a point, as long as we got positive results in the other games.”

Tooting looked on the verge of back-to-back defeats to play-off rivals Kingstonian at the weekend, after Vines conceded a penalty ten minutes from time which Bobby Traynor converted.

But Graves’ late heroics garnered what in the captain’s opinion was a deserved point.

Vines added: “I thought the penalty decision was laughable - it was a foul but outside the box.

“But you need to be able to bounce back and we did and I thought our performance warranted a draw.”

The Terrors were forced to start without Jamie Byatt, who looks set to miss the campaign with a cruciate ligament injury suffered on Boxing Day.

And Vines admits the loss of the wideman will be a major blow.

He added: “You cannot really replace Jamie as he has so much energy and enthusiasm - you cannot coach that.

“He gives us a lot of options and will be sorely missed.”

Tooting & Mitcham’s next three matches: Jan 6 Margate (a), 9 Wealdstone (h), 11 AFC Wimbledon (LSC, h), 16 Billericay Town (h)

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