Ryan Maxwell believes Sittingbourne’s Christmas and New Year schedule is as tough as it gets.

Boss Maxwell can’t wait to get stuck into three big games as Bourne look to build on a fine start to the season.

They remain third in Isthmian South East going into Swale derby at Sheppey on Boxing Day.

That’s followed by back-to-back matches against the two title favourites, with Bourne off to Cray Valley on Saturday, December 30 before hosting Ramsgate on New Year’s Day.

All three fixtures are 3pm kick-offs.

“If I were to do a little recap on our season so far I would say it’s maybe just about where we’d expect to be,” said Maxwell.

“We’d probably want to be a little bit further on in terms of points, and we deserve to be as well.

“But we’ll take where we are and we look forward to putting our foot to the floor.

“I believe there’s more to come from this team so I’m looking forward to the turn of the year.

“You can only directly affect your opposition when you’re playing against them.

“So these games over Christmas and New Year are the games I look forward to and I know the players are too.

“We’re confident and we understand it’s going to be vital to take points off these teams, home or away.

“It’s an exciting time of the season and the games we’ve got coming up add to that.

“It’s as tough as it gets and if we come through it with flying colours that’ll be a fantastic achievement and set us up nicely for the push going forward.”

Sittingbourne gave debuts to new signings Michael Turner and Stefan Ilic in a 3-0 home win over Merstham on Saturday.

Turner, a defender who’s signed on dual-registration from Romford, started, while attacking midfielder Ilic, a man Maxwell worked with at Braintree, set up two goals after coming off the bench.

“They were two great debuts - both players were excellent,” said Maxwell.

“Michael’s a 6ft5in centre-half and I really liked what I saw of him in training, so I was happy to start him.

“We took him off as a precaution, because he’d been booked, but he looked like he’d been playing with us for a number of months, so full credit to him.

“Stef played for me at Braintree and he’s a fantastic footballer - technically very gifted.

“He’s been at the likes of Hungerford and Hampton & Richmond since and he recently became available.

“I was quick to make contact and in a couple of days he was with us.

“I brought him on and he made two goals, so a fantastic impact and debut for him.

“You have to look at your squad all the time.

“Chrissy Arthur was suspended at centre-half, so we had a void there, and we had a couple of knocks in midfield and wide areas, plus Jardel (Adeyinka) the striker, had tweaked his hamstring and Stef can also play up front.

“It’s a case of making sure we had cover but only bringing in good players, not just bringing people in for the sake of it.

“They’ve got to be able to start a game and perform so anyone I bring in has to be of a certain standard, and those two are certainly that.”

All the goals came in the second half against Merstham.

Man-of-the-match D’Sean Theobalds broke the deadlock, with Mitchell May and Chris Harris also on target as Bourne returned to action after back-to-back postponements.

Maxwell said: “When you’ve had games called off, you’re a bit concerned about people having the right mentality, making sure they don’t fall off it in any way, shape or form.

“There was no real sign of that happening although we were a little bit rusty in the first half.

“Second half, we scored quite early and then we had total control of the game.

“I don’t think my keeper got involved at all so I was delighted with the second-half performance.

“They’ve shown great attitude over this period of having the games off and that was highlighted.”