Since their four nil home drubbing by Phoenix Sports a fortnight ago, Hythe Town boss Steve Watt has seen his side rally superbly.

They have had two wins and a draw since which sends them into their mouth watering Buildbase FA Trophy tie with Ashford United this weekend in good spirits…

Speaking to KSN ahead of the tie at Reachfields, the Hythe boss told us, “We’re in decent form at the moment – we’ve had a tough last six days. We spoke to the boys before the Sevenoaks game in midweek last week with three games in the six days and we were going to use and rotate the squad to keep things fresh.”

“Seven points from nine from the three games I think you would take, and we’ve got to be happy with where we’re at!”

“I set the boys the target after Phoenix that I wanted seven points from the three games and I wouldn’t be happy with anything less than that, and the boys have gone out and been able to secure the points.”

“I don’t think that this is a season that you want to be playing catch up with teams – last year we were playing well coming in and making changes, we were always trying to play catch up. But I think this season, you want to try and get out and get ahead of things and go toe to toe with these bigger clubs in the League and try to stay with them!”

“It was important that after the Phoenix game, we reacted well, and I couldn’t have asked from a better response from the players.”

“I think this will be the hardest year to get out of this League if I’m honest – it was always going to be interesting to see how clubs coped with the pandemic and the repercussions from it.”

“Clubs seem to have invested more in teams and it makes better football, makes better challenges and when you look at the League now, there’s a lot of teams in there – ten or eleven teams – all of whom with a chance of the Play Offs and Promotion.”

“I would definitely say that it’s going to be the hardest yet in this division, definitely harder than last year I believe – from my perspective having that experience in players who have been there and done it and are used to the pressure could give us an upper hand in some of these games and if we’re up there or thereabouts come the end of the season, that experience will be worth its’ weight in gold and hopefully we can be there and around it and the boys can use it to get us over the line at the end of the season.”

“I like experience within my teams – I think it’s important when you’re looking to be successful and you have to have the blend between youth and experience and I think we’ve got the balance just about spot on.”

“We’ve got some good experienced heads through the spine of the team and then you’ve got some good quality young players around it!”

The Hythe boss finished by talking about Saturday’s entry in the FA Trophy and their home tie with Tommy Warrilow’s Ashford United.

Looking ahead, he said, “We lost Frannie Collin with injury on Saturday (against Herne Bay) so he wasn’t available on Tuesday (at Whitstable) but the boys went out and showed their strength in depth that we’ve got in the squad and it leads us into Saturday nicely, but like I’m always telling the boys, you can’t live on past results – they’re irrelevant now and don’t matter – you got what you got from the game and you have to move onto the next game.”

“So, we’re fully expecting a tough tie on Saturday – it always is against Tommy’s side – and the boys are really looking forward to it!”