Whitstable Town chairman Gary Johnson believes the club’s management team still have “an enormous amount of work to do” before the start of their Ryman League, Division 1 South campaign on August 10.

With manager Nicky Southall and assistant Jason Lillis both on holiday, goalkeeping coach Scott Davenport took charge of the side for Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat at Corinthian.

Mr Johnson was among the spectators as the Oystermen fielded a mixture of first teamers, under-21 team players and trialists, and the chairman said: “We had a few players away on holiday but let’s not make any excuses, Corinthian played well and deserved their win.

“They are a well-drilled side who have played together for a number of years but we don’t have that same sense of longevity and togetherness among our players.

“Nicky joined us halfway through last season and inherited someone else’s squad.
“But there are no excuses now, this is his squad and management team and Tuesday night’s performance will have highlighted to Nicky and Jason that there is still an enormous amount of work to do before the start of the league season.”

That includes, in Mr Johnson’s opinion, finding a new centre forward and a new centre-back, but he added: “Nicky will have his own view on that and the club will support him as much as we can if he wants to bring in some more new players.

“Nicky is doing a good job and the pre-season fitness programme he organised was superb.”

Town play their final pre-season game at home to Tonbridge Angels on Saturday before their opening league game at Redhill on August 10.