Manager Dan Scorer tells how Kennington are strengthening links with their junior club

Kennington are looking to strengthen links with their junior club and establish a pathway through to the first team.

Ton players and coaches attended a club fun day during which they put on sessions for young players.

This season they’ve promoted three players from last year’s under-16s to the senior squad - Euan Biggleston, Liam Hughes and Ifaz Abed - and it’s hoped more will follow.

“We’ve been trying to put things into place for quite a few years,” said Kennington manager Dan Scorer.

“As a club we’ve got close to 20 teams across our junior age group and certainly when I played at Kennington as a junior player there was no real pathway into men’s football.

“The standard’s changed a little bit now for the first team.

“When I was younger it was Kent County League Division 1 or 2 at 16 and now we’re in the SCEFL Premier Division.

“With all the things we’ve got in place as a senior club we want to give our youth players an opportunity to see there’s a pathway to progress and play senior football at a relatively good standard.

“It was nice to speak to all the children and explain that we might not be a household name in men’s football but as soon as I mentioned we were in the FA Cup, they couldn’t believe it.

“It’s nice for them to recognise us as a side of relatively good stature in Kent and give the 14/15/16-year-olds something to push towards.

“We’re certainly bringing that relationship closer and hopefully in the next year or two we can continue to introduce an under-23 side that brings a bit of a pathway and gives them a platform to step into the men’s game.”

A goal three minutes from time saw Kennington beaten 1-0 at home by Erith & Belvedere in Scorer’s 350th game in charge on Saturday.

But they fought back from 2-0