Player-boss Wayne Wilson wants Whitstable to channel the gung-ho spirit of Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle sides to help them secure their great escape - and to help do that he has signed prolific striker Stuart King.

King, who quit Faversham last weekend has re-joined Whitstable, a side he helped to the Kent League title in 2006/07 with 30 goals, before leaving to join Ramsgate.

He went on to also play for Herne Bay, Folkestone and Maidstone.

After leaving Faversham, he said: “I just think that at the age of 28 there’s still more to me than being a back-up striker or a Plan B if you need a goal with 20 minutes left.

“I believe I could win the Golden Boot at this level if I’m playing regularly and I could have got 20 or 25 this season if I played consistently.”

The Oystermen remain in the Ryman League, Division 1 South mire after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Chatham.

They are now 13 points from safety with just 17 games left but Wilson and co-boss Ian Cox believe Town’s best bet of closing the gap is by simply aiming to outscore their opponents like Keegan’s famous team of the 1990s.

Wilson said: “Ultimately you have got to score goals to win games, haven’t you? As long as we score more than the other team, then that’s fine by me.

“Every game can be 4-3 for all I care as long as we get at least 10 of them between now and the end of the season.

“I’m not paying attention to what other teams are doing. If we win all our games, then we are going to finish above them so that’s what we are trying to do.”

Town have kept just two clean sheets all season, although one of those came in September’s 3-0 win against Tooting & Mitcham, whom Town visit on Saturday (3pm) seeking to complete an unlikely double.

Wilson said: “The Chatham game was disappointing but I have no doubt we can go and win at Tooting – we just have to replicate what we did in the Herne Bay win (on December 28).

“We were defensively outstanding against Bay and if we can do that against a top team with one of the best home records in the league, then we should certainly have been able to do it against a team like Chatham, who were, frankly, beatable.”

Wilson hopes to add two new faces on permanent deals in time for the trip to Tooting but added: “It is obvious the talent in the squad is already there, plus the discipline and desire, because we saw it the previous game but now we need to do that on a regular basis.

“If the players have the right mindset, then they should motivate themselves. They had done the hard work in the previous game. Saturday was disappointing – I just hope the players didn’t think they only had to turn up to win it.”

Saturday was the 12th time Town had fired a blank in 29 league games and means they have scored just 31 goals while they have now conceded a league-worst 77 at the other end.