With just eight weeks left of the regular Isthmian League season, Hythe Town are facing the prospect of playing two games a week for the rest of the campaign… at least! 

And Steve Watt, who led the Cannons to the post season last year with a terrific run at the end of the campaign, has told KSN this week that if his side were to reach that play-offs again this time around it would cap the achievements of twelve months ago. 

“We are not in the most ideal position with sixteen game to play in two months, but it is what it is! We all know that we’ve had a really wet January and February, a couple of the games are away from home.

“We got all the way to Three Bridges that was called off when the referee arrived; East Grinstead was away too, so that’s two games that were in our control if you like but the weather hasn’t been great at all.” 

Hythe played just their third home league game since New Years Day a 1-0 win over Littlehampton, and even then, the boss admitted, “I was amazed it was played then! But last Saturday when we were due to play Sittingbourne, the pitch was not playable and then I got sent a video at four o’clock with the pitch under water with the downpour!” 

“It is going to be a big ask of our players and our team we have not got the biggest squad either, some players are really going to have to dig deep in the coming weeks to try and get us the results to put us where we think we should be.

“We’ve been beaten just once in the last six that we have played, and we have been like that all season. We’ve drawn too many that we should have won as we have been in front in most of them, if not all of them! So, I think we are a good twelve points worse off than we actually should be, and if you put that into perspective and games in hand, we would be able to actually challenge for the title with our games that we have still got to play.” 

“I’m really pleased with what the boys have done this year, the Trophy run was great, but I’m all about the “bread and butter” of the League and just looking back at it now and I just don’t know what the future is going to hold as regards to this season.

“There’s a real strain on what we’ve got to try and do! It was a great achievement what we did last years but if we can do it again and “just” get to the play-offs it will be a bigger achievement than what we were able to do last year!” 

“We’ve got back-to-back wins again, we’ve got people back from suspensions, people coming back from injuries, so we’ve gone through that period and getting stronger for this gauntlet we’re about to run for the last eight weeks of the season.” 

And that “gauntlet” at least is guaranteed to begin on Saturday with a trip to the 4g at Winches Field to face Herne Bay. “We have not played Herne Bay, yet this season and I believe that its them and Lancing we have to catch.

“You are not going to catch Sittingbourne as I think the top three will end up the top three, so I think its fourth and fifth that are going to be up for grabs and that is what we are trying to catch.

“Do the maths, we know that we will not win every game in hand that we have got and that is why Saturday is so important to us. We are eleven points behind them today with five games (in hand); if we win Saturday, that becomes eight points with five games and looks a lot more doable, and manageable!”