Remarkably the football season starts for Whitstable Town and Punjab United on Saturday with Whitstable boss Jamie Coyle excited by the long campaign ahead.

It is the opening weekend of the SCEFL Premier Division and in arguably the pick of the games last season’s two beaten Play Off semi-finalists have been paired together at the Belmont as Kent’s FA Vase winners play their first competitive match since that glorious Sunday at Wembley in May. 

Whitstable Town welcome Punjab United on day one, with Jamie Coyle, the Oystermen’s boss relishing the new season as he told KSN this week… 

“It’s the fastest turn around that I can ever remember,” Coyle confessed. “It does only feel like a couple of weeks ago that we were at Wembley finishing last season.” 

“I don’t think I have ever started a League season in July before,” he admitted, adding, “That said, I am hoping with the momentum that we had at the back end of last season we can hit the ground running.”

“It will be tough after Wembley, but the boys in pre-season have been outstanding, the ones that have been retained and the new boys, there really has been some promising signs, along with some really good performances, so we are confident going into the start of the season.” 

“We’ll certainly have a target on our backs after winning the Vase. That said, when we played at home last season, it felt like it was a Cup Final for a lot of teams we played as we were fancied last year – every game at home was tough and I am expecting it to be just as tough, if not more so this year.”

“We must make sure that the mentality is right every week, which I am in no doubt it will be because this year is a huge year for us and the Football Club with the aim to get out of this League.” 

“I think Phoenix will be a tough nut to crack and they will be looking to bounce straight back up – they have a decent squad and some good individual players; they will be a threat!”

“I think teams like Fisher who added to their squad and beat us in the Semi Finals of the Play Offs last year – we cannot take any team lightly and it’s really important we attack every game as we did the back end of last season, make sure we do our preparation right and have to concentrate on doing our jobs.”

“If we do that and have a better start than we did last season – which in the end was our Achillies heel and cost us dearly as it was such a slow start – we need to make sure that we get it right this year and if we can carry on with the same form as we finished the back end of last year we will be some force this season!” 

Whitstable Town begin their campaign at home to Chipie Sian’s Punjab United who lost the other Play Off semi-final to VCD Athletic who eventually got promoted – Coyle told us, “They will be one of the other fancied teams for the League I am sure, and we start with them on Saturday.”

“It’s a really tough start – both teams would probably admit that they could have done without the fixture on day one, but it’s a real test for us so early in the year that I am really looking forward to.”

“Every game we have to approach as a Cup Final and be really focused on doing our job, and with the personnel that we’ve got we are in a confident place in terms of the performances and the run we put together last season – we have to make sure that we maintain that and work as hard as we did last season that got us our successes.” 

And when we asked if he would start on Saturday as the player manager did so gloriously at Wembley, Coyle replied smiling, “No!”