Whitstable Town face Leatherhead in the Emirates FA Cup this weekend after drawing a blank so far in the Isthmian League, but boss Lloyd Blackman goes into Saturday’s tie at the Belmont in hopeful – if not confident mood.

“We haven’t picked up any League points in the games that we’ve had,” the Oystermen’s boss told us, “and so I do honestly think that the weekend is a nice game to be going into as it takes away as a distraction as to what was an incredibly hard Bank Holiday weekend.”

Whitstable go into the weekend pointless in the League and off the back of a 2-1 reverse to arch-rivals Herne Bay. “Monday hurt a lot,” Blackman confessed.

“You see me on the sidelines as a manager wearing my heart on my sleeve… I was immensely proud of the players as they worked extremely hard as we had numerous players out – I really must have run over a black cat or two during the week!”

“Things certainly didn’t go our way – it started at East Grinstead when we picked up three injuries in thirty-five minutes which meant we were putting the squad together for our biggest home League game of the season during the day on Sunday.”

“In an ideal world you want to field your strongest eleven against your local rivals and we couldn’t and that’s the way it was. I thought the players did really well and did everything that I asked of them – on the one side of course disappointed that we lost, but yet on the other side, we’ve got to remain positive and keep my own head up because of the work that the boys put in.”

“We know that we’ll be up against a side from the League above, but we will go into the game giving it everything that we have and if the boys stay confident and perform like I know that they can, then who knows what can happen.”

“We know that we’re the underdogs – they will start as favourites but it’s a game that we’re looking forward to. It’s nice to get a break away from the League that hasn’t quite gone our way.”

“They’ve had some good Cup runs in the past, but everyone would love one this of all seasons, the extra games will give the Club extra revenue and every Club playing this weekend will be looking for a decent run with all the difficulties everyone has faced.”

“You want to keep your name in the hat as it provides a great spectacle, and everyone is dreaming that you could be the team to be drawn against someone incredible.”

“Any FA Cup run is nice as it puts a few coffers in the bank for the Club and it’s also nice for the players to be able to park the League campaign for one afternoon and use this as a game where if we do win, it’ll boost their confidence massively – not that it’s down though to be fair as we’ve got a great group of lads!”

“But Saturday is a bit of a free hit for us and if we can perform well, I’m hopeful that we can pull off an upset and we will certainly give it a good go!”