Sam Denly believes the mass brawl after Hythe’s defeat at Faversham could kickstart their play-off push.

Up to 40 people were involved in fighting on the Salters Lane pitch after the final whistle last Tuesday.

Denly claims he was on the wrong end of a nasty incident at full-time which sparked the ugly scenes which followed.

The manager held a meeting with his squad before Saturday’s Bostik South East game against Phoenix Sports to discuss what happened.

And the players responded by delivering their best performance of the season in a thumping 5-1 win.

Denly said: “It was just the response I wanted after what happened on Tuesday.

“I’m not condoning it but sometimes incidents like that can kickstart your season and the boys were excellent.

“We got in early, had a chat and I got exactly the reaction I was looking for.

“I’ve got strong views on what happened because it involved me at the beginning. I’m never going to condone what happened after because you don’t want to see a 40-man brawl kicking off with supporters on the pitch.

“It was mayhem but seeing the boys react like that, in some ways, it was good to see a bit of character.

“We’ll deal with the consequences together, as a team. I’m not going to point fingers at individuals, there will be no singling people out and I’ve said that to the club.

“We’re going to have an investigation because we don’t want to see scenes like that but it happened for a reason.

“I want our behaviour to be impeccable moving forward, as it had been before. There have been no issues in terms of red cards this season and they’re a good bunch of lads.

“They’re a pleasure to work with but it was just a case of making sure we ironed it out, had a conversation and we’ll move forward as a group.

“I believe we can turn this into a positive. We were outstanding on Saturday; every player put a shift in.

“It was by far our best performance of the season and hopefully we can move on from that now and go on a run to get ourselves back in those play-offs.”

Hythe go to rock-bottom Greenwich on Saturday knowing another win could see them break into the top five.

Denly said: “We seem to play our best football against the teams up there but we won’t be taking them lightly.

“They’ve got new management in there and they’re going to be a good side.

“They lost 4-1 to Faversham on Saturday so they’ll be looking for a reaction from their players.”

Full-back Joey Taylor could make his debut after joining from Horsham while Chris Kinnear is available after suspension.