On the eve of “El Swale-co”, Sittingbourne boss Chris Lynch has moved to strengthen his backroom staff following the departure of coach Nathan Elder to rivals Hythe Town, by announcing the appointment of former Holland and Blair boss Darren Blackburn to be his number two on Thursday evening.

Speaking to KSN about Elder’s departure, the Brickies boss admitted, “I wouldn’t even say we lost Nathan, as far as I’m concerned Nathan was a player who was a player when I came to the club who voiced an interest to get more involved in the coaching side which we were able to give him the opportunity to do a little bit quicker than he could have got anywhere else.”

“Ultimately he came to me last week and told me that he’d been given the opportunity to go and work with Steve Watt – one of his former teammates – and obviously Hythe have a bigger budget than we have and so in all honesty it makes perfect sense.”

“I don’t see it as a loss – it’s an opportunity for him to break away from a group of players he was a player with here, and if you’re going to go to a club in management side, first of all you need your qualifications and secondly you really need to make that transition with players that you haven’t played with.”

“All in all, I think it’s a good move for him and I’ve just appointed Darren as my new number two on Thursday. After his spell as Hollands and Blair manager, I brought him to the club in the summer to help out with the coaching side and now he’s going to be my number two now.”

“He’d done some of his coaching badges and is going through his UEFA badge now, and it makes perfect sense to me as he’s someone who I worked with for a long time and we get on well!”

Sittingbourne will travel to Salters Lane on the back of losing three nil at Bognor in the FA Cup last weekend – a tie that Lynch confirmed, “the tie was always going to be tough for us as there is in my opinion a big gap between our level and the next one up.”

“I’ve got a very young squad here – one which is determined and full of desire – but these are the games where they will learn quickly and on Saturday three nil down at half time, that’s what they did!”

“They were the better team for the first forty-five minutes, and I thought they played very well, and we didn’t really have any options in the first half. Second half we came away with a nil-nil and we worked our socks off and they proved that they could compete against teams like that, but unfortunately the damage had been done to prove just what a learning curve they are on.”

“For me, my aim is to one day get back into the Football League one day, this time as a manager rather than a player and I believe that we’ve got a great little project going here; alright the budget definitely isn’t the biggest, but they are challenges that I like to go and face.”

“So, if we can do it with limited budget restraints, it’s a thing for the CV that we can do well in difficult circumstances. We’ve got a terrific bunch of players and a great club – on and off the field now as I’ve managed to make a lot of changes which will see the club go through the next phase of its development at the same time!”

With the local derby coming up on Saturday, Lynch confirmed that the trip to Salters Lane was more than just “another” League game.

“Of course, it adds something,” he said. “We beat them at our place last season 3-1! It’s a game that we always look to do well in and I’m sure that both sides will be up for it and it will be a good game. We’ve done alright so far and if you take away the penalties against Sevenoaks in the Velocity Trophy, we’re unbeaten in four games against teams in our level.”

“We lost to Bognor last week in the Cup, but they are a division higher and other than that, we’ve done well so far. For us we’re looking to carry the momentum that we’ve got so far into the weekend.”

“We go into Saturday without our captain, but we’ve won our last two without him – we’ve got a young squad who can beat anyone on their day and that’s what makes Saturday so exciting!”