Whitstable move forward against Chipstead Picture: Chris Davey

Whitstable Town, with caretaker manager Richard Langley in charge, ended a traumatic week with a morale-boosting 1-0 home win over Chipstead in Ryman League Division 1 South on Saturday.

Langley is in temporary command following the dismissal of Justin Luchford last week and saw the Oystermen gain only their fifth league win of the season thanks to a 77th-minute strike from Scott Heard.

At the other end of the table Hythe Town are now joint leaders with Maidstone United following their 4-3 victory at Worthing. Hythe scored four times in the opening 36 minutes through Dave Cook (2), Taser Hassan and Nick Reeves, and although Tom Lawley struck a hat-trick for the home side they were unable to prevent Hythe's surge into joint pole position.

Maidstone United, meanwhile, needed an injury-time equaliser from Michael Phillips to avoid a surprise home defeat at the hands of bottom club Walton Casuals.

Struggling Casuals looked set for a shock 1-0 win when Kieran Dias scored in the 89th minute but Phillips saved Stones' blushes when he struck in the fifth minute of added time.

With Herne Bay losing 2-1 at Dulwich Hamlet, Faversham Town leap-frogged them into sixth place with a 2-1 victory at Merstham thanks to two goals in the last eight minutes from Renford Tenyue and Adrian Stone.

Herne Bay led 1-0 at Dulwich at half-time through a Calum McGeehan free-kick but Hamlet hit back in the second half, with their winner from Kevin James coming six minutes from time.

Leading scorer Stuart King helped himself to a hat-trick as Folkestone Invicta recorded their first win in 10 matches - a 3-1 home success against Three Bridges.

Sittingbourne are in eighth place after their 2-0 home win over Tooting & Mitcham thanks. The goals came in each half, from Hicham Akhazzan and Ryan Golding (penalty). The match featured 11 yellow cards and there was also a red card for Tooting's Taurean Roberts.

Bourne are one place above Ramsgate who were 2-0 winners at Corinthian-Casuals through strikes from Tom Chapman and Macauley Murray.

Their Thanet rivals Margate remain one point behind leaders Whitehawk in the Ryman Premier after their 3-1 home success over Bury Town. Trailing 1-0 at the break, Margate struck back in the second half through Tommy Whitnell, Dan Stubbs (penalty) and Richard Avery. The only downside for Gate was the injury-time dismissal of Carl Rook for a second yellow card.

Cray Wanderers produced their best performance of the season in winning 3-1 at high-flying Hampton & Richmond, where their goals came from Leigh Bremner, Paul Vines and Aaron Day.

In Ryman 1 North, Matt Newman scored twice for Chatham Town to earn his side a 2-2 draw at Heybridge Swifts, but Thamesmead Town were swept aside 3-0 by fellow promotion-chasers Grays.