Whitstable Town are back on the Road to Wembley this weekend as the FA Cup begins with manager Jamie Coyle keen on a decent cup run.

Just three short months after enjoying the biggest day in the Club’s history, Jamie Coyle and his side are back on the path to the Arch as the FA Vase holders head to Sussex to face Lingfield at the Peter Humphrey’s Memorial Ground, which the Southern Combination Premier side share with Steyning Town. 

Speaking to KSN after the Oystermen made a winning start to their SCEFL campaign last weekend, Coyle told us, “It’s really important to have a Cup run, especially off the back of what we did last year!” 

“We want to have a better run this year than last year when we went out to Sevenoaks early – that was when we were in the very early stages of trying to put a team together.”

“We gave a good account of ourselves and I’m hoping this year that at Lingfield we will be more confident going into the tie.”

“The boys showed on the opening day in the League that when the chips were down a little bit and missing chance after chance, naturally you start thinking about conceding.”

“But we are in a really good place mentally – individual wise and collectively – we are really strong, and we have genuine hope that we can have a really good Cup run that can emulate, as much as we can anyway, of what we did in the Vase last year!” 

Reflecting on his side’s start and the 2-1 win over Punjab, Coyle said, “I don’t think it matters what it looked like – it was all about the three points!”

“In hindsight we had three glorious chances in the second half to put the game to bed, but it wasn’t to be! We faced an absolute onslaught of long throws, set pieces and crosses into our box so I have to be happy with the way that we defended and that was a real positive.” 

“The win was so much better than last year when we were three nil up away to Sutton and finished up drawing 3-3 and looking at the difference last Saturday – the players, the togetherness and the understanding – we are in a far better place going forward and that will hopefully include a run in the “other” Cup!”