Budget cuts have forced Hythe Town to release three players.

Jack Sammoutis, Zach Fagan and Nigel Neita have all left the club as the Cannons start to build for next season.

They look set to miss out on the Bostik South East play-offs so manager Sam Denly has been asked to make savings.

He said: “It’s probably the hardest part of management but we’ve had to balance the books given our position in the league.

“We’ve had a chat as a club and the chairman felt we needed to get things a little more balanced given the play-offs are probably out of touch now.

“I’ve had to make some difficult decisions. The majority of the team are contracted so that almost forced my hand on the players we let go.

“It’s the worst part of management but it’s something you can’t avoid and a lot of it often does come down to budgets.

“No clubs have an open cheque book, you’ve got to keep trying to improve and that means players sometimes have to move on because you can’t have X amount of players on X amount of money on the bench.

“It’s difficult but I had to make those calls and they were ones I didn’t enjoy making.

“They’re all very good players and they haven’t done anything different to anyone else. It wasn’t a case of ‘you haven’t performed, off you go’ because they’ve done as well as anyone else.

“Jack Sammoutis is a fantastic player. I think a lot of the lad and it was a call I didn’t want to make, the same with Nigel. He’s done well for us and he’s a good striker who’s been around and knows where the back of the net is.

“He’s a top bloke and the same with Fages. We probably haven’t seen the best of Fages because he’s been injured a lot.

“He’s been in for one game and out for a couple so he hasn’t really got going and he knows that.

“It’s still disappointing but we needed to make a few changes.”

Hythe entertain Ramsgate on Saturday with Denly having been backed by chairman Paul Markland to lead the club again next season.

He said: “We haven’t achieved what we wanted to achieve this season. We’ve under-performed but we all want the same thing and that’s to progress.

“The chairman can see we’re trying to do the right things. It hasn’t quite happened this season but we’re making steps in the right direction.

“We’ve brought a couple of good players in, Tom Carlton and Sid Sollis. Sid’s on loan (from Margate) and we’d like to make that permanent but we’ve got the nucleus of a good side. All the conversations were very positive and we’re looking to finish this season as strongly as we can and hopefully have improved by this time next year.”

Tony Coxall continues in goal in the absence of George Kamurasi this weekend but Charlie Webster is an injury doubt.