New Ashford United Alex Akrofi sets sights on fifth promotion

Alex Akrofi is targeting a fifth career promotion after joining Ashford United.

At 28, the striker has been something of a lucky charm over the years.

He won two promotions in one season, helping Maidstone to the Isthmian Premier title and scoring a hat-trick in the Isthmian North play-off final while on loan at Brentwood.

He went up again with the Stones a year later and has also fired Aveley to glory.

Akrofi arrives at Homelands after spending the bulk of last season at Carshalton.

He endured a rare dry spell with the Robins but is ready to put that behind him and help Ashford achieve their goal of Isthmian South East promotion under new manager Kevin Watson.

“Last year was the first year I didn’t have a good season,” said Akrofi.

“There were a lot of reasons for that - injury, I had concussion at one point and missed three weeks - and I’m looking forward to putting that right and having another promotion push.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be part of four promotion-winning squads and if I could get to five that would be good.

“I started the season at Aveley but it became very clear by September I wasn’t going to play.

“We’d gone up a league, the manager changed formation and I was more on the bench, so I went to Carshalton with Steve (McKimm), who I played for at Tonbridge.

“I’ve never really been a left-winger but I was playing there and doing all right and then winter came and we were running at some point with 12 players, which didn’t help, and we fell away.

“This is a fresh start and I’m looking forward to being at Ashford, working with Kev, Adam Flanagan and Tommy Osborne (Watson’s management team).”

Watson had previously held talks with Akrofi while in charge at Cray Valley.

He went back in for him after succeeding