Hythe Town are expecting a Whitstable Town backlash at The Belmont on Saturday.

Tim Dixon’s side hammered the Oystermen 4-0 in the FA Cup earlier this season and they’re out for revenge in Saturday’s league clash.

Hythe boss Dixon, who worked with Whitstable joint-manager Jim Ward at Ramsgate, knows his former colleague will be out to settle that particular score.

He said: "Jim and Danny will get right into them. They were embarrassed about that defeat, rightly so, and they’ll be getting them geed up because they won’t want a repeat performance.

"We were better on the day and we’ve got to take that sort of form into this game on Saturday because it’s going to be tough.

"That result will have no influence on Saturday’s game and I’ll tell the players that because sometimes you can get to casual when you’re approaching a game.

"They’ve got a great record at home. They’ve not been beaten there in the league this season but they’ve got to lose there sooner or later. They had a blip on Saturday (losing to AFC Sudbury in the FA Trophy)."

Whitstable go into the Kent derby sitting ninth, 12 places and 10 points above the Cannons.

But recent form – two wins and a draw in their last three games – suggests Hythe are on the way up.

Dixon said: "I’m more positive about the way we’re playing. We’re playing some nice football and there’s a good tempo to our play."

Striker Craig Thompson starts a five-match ban on Saturday and defender John Walker is also suspended, while goalkeeper Dan Eason and defenders Lewis Mingle and Craig Cloke are injured.

Read the full story in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.