Sittingbourne face losing some of their new recruits before the season has even started.

Manager Chris Lynch says "two or three" of his players have been targeted by National League and National South clubs.

He's urged those in question to think carefully before moving on.

Lynch said: "We want to support our players but we don't want them sitting on the bench or not even making the squad somewhere.

"We're just having those conversations and we also want contact with the other clubs.

"That's important so we can give the players the right information to make the right decision.

"If someone has a chance to go to a Conference club they've got to take it but they have to be playing.

"If not, they'll sit around and end up back at this level in a year's time.

"We have a responsibility to look out for the players and if they're going to be someone's back-up, they're better off staying here."

Lynch accepts clubs will come in for his players but his time at Sittingbourne has been an eye-opener.

He added: "How I've always worked at the higher end, there should always be a mutual respect between managers.

"However, what I've seen in non-league is very different.

"I've seen some really crazy stuff over the last six months and going back to the start of last season.

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"We do things the right way here so if I'm interested in a player the first thing I do is have a chat with his manager.

"The other way people do things is to directly ring the player and because they're young lads they have their heads turned and say, 'yeah, let's go for it' and then they don't get the game time."

Sittingbourne released six players following Saturday's 3-2 home defeat by Tonbridge in their opening pre-season friendly.

They include winger Izzy Adebayo and trialists Liam Stone, Eno and Aki Aki.

Lynch said: "It's getting the squad down to a manageable size and once that's done, anyone we add will be absolute quality."

Trialist Sean Brown and a Tom Derry own goal saw the Brickies lead 2-0 inside 10 minutes but Angels scored three times from set-pieces.

Lynch, who named different sides in each half, said: "We played really well at times against a very good team.

"We started with a strong attacking team and showed how potent that could be.

"Their goals all came from set-pieces but that's something we knew we had to work on.

"We hadn't had a chance to work on set-pieces but we're starting now."

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