Scott Porter always hated taking his old teams to Hollands & Blair - and hopes others will now feel the same after being named their new manager.

Porter won the Kent League with Hythe and spent several seasons as Whitstable boss before moving into a director of football role at The Belmont.

He’s been looking for a new challenge after his local side Hawkinge Town, who he had managed for the last two years, were unable to match his own ambitions.

When the Blair job became available, he jumped at the opportunity.

Porter said: “I have known Paul Piggott (the Blair chairman) for a long time and I knew a couple of the players.

“It is in a good catchment area, the club is well run and they have plans for 3G next season and that is appealing.

What I saw on Saturday (against Deal Town in Southern Counties East), watching with my coaching staff, was very positive.

“As a manager I have never wanted to go to Blair, I hated it. It was a tough place to go and that is what we want to get back there.

“Whether that is on a nice pitch or not a nice pitch, that is how we want to get it back to, the chairman wants to get it back that way and I feel like I am the right man to do it.”

Piggott had been in caretaker charge while a new manager was appointed in the wake of Simon Halsey’s departure. Blair won 2-1 at Deal on Saturday.

Porter was with his own backroom team at the Charles Ground to watch the match as a strike from Samuel Itauma and an own goal clinched all three points.

He liked what he saw but wants to bring in some fresh faces to improve the squad. Blair are currently 14th in the table.

Seven-day approaches for two players were put in last week and he was hoping to speak to them with a view of being involved in Saturday’s home match with Punjab United.

Porter said: “I am looking to bring two or three in, it does need it, but I wanted to see the players on Saturday to give them an opportunity to see what they have to offer.

"I was very impressed, they battled well against a very good side.

“We want to work a bit on their fitness because the way I want to play they need to be a lot fitter than they are, but the formation they played on Saturday we chose and it is the one we want to play, so they know that.

“I have had a lot of people contact me, with regard to being interested in coming in, but I can only work with the budget I have got and I am happy with that, especially this stage of the season.

“The bigger picture is next year, I will have got my foot in the door with my way of doing things.”

Porter does have a target this year, however.

He said: “I want to get into the top eight this season. I want to aim as high as I can, that is where we are aiming and with the teams we have in the next eight to 10 games, they are winnable and we are still in two cups.

“If the boys showed to me what they did on Saturday then we are not going to be far off where we want to be at the end of the season.

“You have to keep people on their toes and looking towards next season, which is the bigger picture.

“I am working with the staff I had at Whitstable which is good, because I know them well, it was a successful team I had there.

"We are together again and I am really looking forward to it.”

Porter brings in Mark Lane as assistant manager along with Darren Anslow and Bob Reardon to help with the coaching.

He added: “I like to have experienced people around me, I am the younger one but I need to have the older heads around me because you need every input possible.”

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