Boss Clive Cook says his Hythe players are getting help from other sides in their promotion push, now it’s up to them to do their part.

The Cannons remained fourth in Ryman League, Division 1 South despite a shock 3-0 defeat on the artificial pitch at Whyteleafe on Saturday but dropped a place to fifth after losing 4-0 at home to new leaders Tooting & Mitcham on Tuesday.

Having seen play-off rivals Carshalton and Dorking draw on Monday, Cook said: “I’d have taken that. When all the other results seem to have been going our way though, we go and shoot ourselves in the foot. On Saturday, it was rubbish.

“We have games in hand and are in the mix, though. Other teams are helping us out but it’s up to us to do our bit. We have beaten all the top teams away from home but we’ve not come to the table against some of the others.

“The biggest thing is the players need to have confidence in themselves that we can beat anyone in this league because I have confidence in them.”

The Cannons conducted an hour-long inquest in the changing room after the loss in Surrey and Cook said: “I have watched the goals back and they were appalling defensive mistakes.

“We don’t ever concede good goals, we let teams score and I told the players that. It’s something we need to work on. It’s not the fact that Alfie May’s gone either, we have goalscorers here, we just did not create a thing on Saturday.

“The first half we were all right but the second half we just switched-off.

“They went 1-0 up after 49 minutes but just did not respond.We did nothing. Full-stop. It was disappointing.”

Cook’s aim was to stay unbeaten through their three home games in a week, starting with the Tooting game, Saturday’s clash with Walton Casuals (sat eighth, 3pm) and ending with Tuesday’s visit of struggling Guernsey to Reachfields (7.45pm).

Cook said: “We have the chance to close the gap at the top and extend the gap over Walton Casuals so I’m hoping we can take that. The table will sort itself out in the next three or four weeks.

“Guernsey are fighting for their lives and will want to stay in the division but it’s a fascinating league, you can’t guess the results from one week to the next.”

Sam Adams hopes to recover from a calf problem which forced him off at Whyteleafe while Ryan Johnson returns from a two-match ban.