Leese backs experienced Generals in play-off showdown

May 3 2012 By Matt Lewis

Andy Leese

EXPERIENCED Andy Leese insists his knowledge of the play-offs will be crucial in guiding Chesham United through the end of season lottery.

The Generals travel to third-place finishers AFC Totton tonight (Thursday) for their crunch Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division play-off semi final.

Leese is coming to the end of his fifth term in charge at The Meadow and oversaw promotion via the end of season shootout two years ago.

And the former Borehamwood and Cheshunt manager will be drawing on all of his experience, as well as that of his squad, to book United’s place in the final on Bank Holiday Monday.

Leese said: “We will have the opportunity to put some more experienced players in and I’ll need the experience. We prepare properly and are very methodical.

“I’ve had a look at everybody we thought would be in there so we’ve certainly done the preparation and we just need to make sure we play well on the night.

“To be fair it’s always a bit of a lottery, but we’ve been there before and we’ve got the experience and we’ll probably have the likes of John Kyriacou and Ryan Moran back.”

Leese’s men go into the semi-final on the back of their final day defeat to Leamington at the weekend, however the Chesham boss is confident the result was just a blip.

He added: “We always respond well and I’ve got great faith in these players. It’s worked out for us in the end and we thought some permutations would go for us but I’ve got to admit 10 minutes into the second-half against Leamington I didn’t think anything was going for us.

“It was only a blip against Lemington, we’ve been in good form. We played well against Wycombe [in their County Cup defeat on penalties] and against Frome Town. Generally we’ve been okay but [against Leamington] I think we showed a few nerves.”