Whitstable boss Lloyd Blackman is hoping to add one or two more players to his squad before the weekend.

The Oystermen suffered their third defeat in a row across all competitions on Tuesday night as they lost on penalties to Hythe in the Velocity Trophy.

They are now gearing up for a return to Isthmian South East action at home to Haywards Heath on Saturday.

Blackman said: “There are things we need to work on as a playing group and as staff as well, need to make sure we don’t concede sloppy goals and are making individual mistakes.

“It’s about fine tuning, hopefully we’ll have a player or two in by Saturday. It’s attacking players that we’re looking at.

“It’s a work in progress, it’s not easy, there are clubs that can splash money and we’re in a position where we have to think outside the box a bit more.”

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Saturday saw Whitstable knocked out of the FA Cup following a 4-0 defeat to Folkestone Invicta, with Blackman having been left wanting more from his team.

He added: “We didn’t have as good a go as we wanted, that’s the most disappointing part. It was a free hit for us against the team top of the Premier Division, they were the better side and are a very very good side.

“We had an opportunity to go out and give it a go, as a group afterwards we sat down to analyse and the disappointment throughout the camp was that we didn’t give a genuine account of ourselves.”

Whitstable skipper Tom Bryant and TJ Jadama were both forced off with injuries at The Belmont, with the pair also missing Tuesday’s defeat to Hythe.

Blackman explained: “Tom did it in the warm-up, he stood on the ball and rolled his ankle but strapped it up.

“Just after the half-time he went in for a 50/50, looked up and said ‘no’ so we made the change. Hopefully he’ll be fit for Saturday.

“TJ opened his knee up a bit in a 50/50, I don’t think it’s too severe.

“We will assess him over the next couple of days.”

Despite losing out on penalties to Hythe, Blackman was able to take plenty of encouragement after watching his side come from two goals behind.

“We had an opportunity to look at a couple of players,” he said.

“We were the team that were probably more on the front foot and in the second half I was pleased with the reaction.”

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