James Rogers is determined to improve Hythe’s poor home record.

The Cannons have been good on the road in Isthmian South East this season, picking up five wins.

But it’s been a different story at Reachfields, where they have won just once, and last night were beaten 5-1 by Burgess Hill despite taking the lead.

Hythe host VCD on Saturday and boss Rogers wants to give fans something to shout about.

“We need to improve our home form, it’s been poor this year,” he said. “We’ve done well away but we have to start winning at home.

“Watty (ex-boss Steve Watt) couldn’t put his finger on it and I can’t because we always seem to start well at home and get the lead but we can’t see it through.

“We need to play our pitch better and come up with something.

“There’s an underlying issue in the squad at the moment in that we play well in the first half, get ourselves in front and then in the second half we drop and drop and drop.

“If you keep doing that, the pressure mounts and you’re going to concede.

“We need to find a way to keep our shape nice and high in the second half of games.

“We’ll work on it and we’ll get there.”

Rogers could be in line to start for the first time since taking charge last month.

He has full confidence in assistant boss Tom Wynter, who remains injured, and coach Will Graham to run things from the touchline, should he be on the pitch against VCD.

Rogers said: “I’m hoping to be ready for Saturday, even if it’s to come on for the last 15/20 minutes to settle things down, but if I need to start, I’ll start.

“We’ll discuss it but Wynts knows how we play and what we want to do, so he’ll take over on the touchline and I’ll run around and try and keep my head on the pitch!

“We’ve got Will Graham in as coach as well, and he knows his stuff.”

Rogers suffered his first defeat as manager last Saturday when Hythe - leading through in-form Jordan Sarfo’s opener - conceded twice at the death.

It followed Phoenix’s last-gasp equaliser the week before, with the Cannons finally worn down by a relentless Hoops side.

“To be fair to them, they play their ground well,” said Rogers.

“It’s on a slope and they work on it.

“Second half, they kicked everything into our box, even from the halfway line they were lifting balls in, and they pen you in.

“They were getting a lot of balls in from wide areas, so we changed shape to nullify that and we did it well.

“We were stopping crosses but that leads to corners and throws and obviously when you’re defending balls in for that long, it’s a matter of time. In the end they wear you down.

“It was a poor game, neither side showed much quality on the ball, but I’ve no complaints over the result.”