Blair have been dominating non-league football in Kent for much of Piggott’s seven-year tenure, yet standards off the pitch rather than off it had been holding the club back.
The FA Vase
Second round qualifying
Star Meadow Sports Club
3pm Saturday 1 October 2015
Winning sides receive £600
That was until last season however, as Piggott’s troops won the treble and with it promotion into the Southern Counties East Football League to reach step five in the non-league football pyramid for the first time.
So far it has gone swimmingly in the higher tier, taking seven wins and two draws from their first 11 games to lead them nicely into their second round qualifying clash at home to AFC Croydon Athletic.
And if the trials and tribulations of the last few years have not set Blair back, it is hard to blame Piggott for believing that an appearance at Wembley Stadium is very much a reachable target.
“We have won the league below for four of the last six years but hadn’t got promoted – we’ve needed floodlights, a new stand, new changing rooms,” said Piggott.
“We had a hell of a lot of work to do, but we’ve worked within our means and when I first came to the club seven years ago we needed to start the ball rolling.
“We’ve probably had three sides in that time. We’d build a side that would win the league, we couldn’t get promoted but obviously the players wanted to progress by moving on and we couldn’t stand in their way.
“It especially hurt last year. We had a bit of a knockback as we didn’t quite make the deadline. But fair play to the boys, they stuck with us for our promotion year and we got over the line. We knew we had a side to go and do well in this league – they’ve acquitted themselves really well.
“You can’t play any team that is higher than step five in the FA Vase so everyone’s got a chance to go to Wembley – that’s the only chance that these boys will ever get to do that.
“There’s been a lot of local success, Tunbridge Wells got to the final, Deal Town have won it before. It’s not a pipedream for us.”
However, opponents AFC Croydon Athletic have undergone a far more dramatic rebuilding job after the club rose from the ashes of the team that folded in 2012.
And the Rams also achieved promotion to Southern Counties East – at the third time of asking – in a year that saw them move back to their original base in Thornton Heath.
“We had quite an experienced squad and through connections I’ve been able to bring in a few Isthmian League players”
Antony Williams AFC Croydon Athletic manager
They are holding their own in the league and manager Antony Williams admits his journey with Athletic has been special so far.
“The supporters and committee members all volunteered their support and got involved in trying to get the ground back up to scratch, it’s been nothing short of amazing considering how it was left after the club folded,” said Williams.
“I had a spell at Merstham and was looking to get back into management and despite it being three levels below, the size and history of Croydon attracted me and I bought into chairman Paul Smith’s plans.
“We had quite an experienced squad and through connections I’ve been able to bring in a few Isthmian League players. The players are attracted as we’ve got a good ground and this level of football doesn’t necessarily come with the same time commitments.
“We have no idea about Hollands & Blair to be honest! We were expecting to be promoted into the Combined Counties so we haven’t done as much research as we’d have liked.
"But I spoke to the staff at Rochester last weekend and they’ve told us about some of their key strengths so that will come in use.”
