i think ill be OK on that because I dont pedal backwards to brake, my setup is freewheel with hand brakes (front disc/rear drum)
Excellent and exactly why I asked what you had;-}
My concern is wearing out anything on the engine-side. it seems like pulling on the drive gear more than is needed for the roller chain to seat on the small front sprocket may cause some wear.
Drive chain tensioner or not the drive chain needs to be 'fairly tight' but you are in luck with your bike, you have some horizontal wheel movement and independent back band brake so you can always toss something on your almost now never used pedal side chain to match 'em up.
Just adjust your drive side chain to 'feel right' and either use the kit tensioner on the pedal side like this fairly recent build...
Or spring for a smaller one like this other build I did like 3 years ago.
Sorry, I can't remember the brand name or model of that tensioner part.
Once again it all comes down to how easy want it to be to adjust your chains as they wear and for the majority of my customers they want quick and easy and why I usually put a drive tensioner on for them but place it where and how it is least likely to fail and even if it does not crash you like this staple build I do.
I can kick the tensioner and it won't move as it is on the meat of the chain stay but even if it did it would hit the tire or rim before it could ever go into the spokes. It all comes down to how easy you want things to be vs. less chance of failure and a pedal side tensioner if one is even needed is best in my book if you can.