Hythe’s battle against the drop in Isthmian South East doesn’t get any easier with games against two of the top three coming up.

The Cannons picked up a point with a creditable 2-2 draw against Deal Town on Saturday but face a bigger challenge this weekend when they head to third-placed Burgess Hill.

Title-chasing Sittingbourne then visit Reachfields on Tuesday night.

Manager Nick Davis said: “Burgess Hill are probably one of the best teams we’ve seen so far this season at Reachfields, a really good side, strength in depth and the benches of those top sides show you how strong they are.

“It will be tough but it’s sort of a free hit for us to go there and see what we can do.

“There are some funny results this time of year. We just have to put our best team out that’s available, which has been a problem for us this season, changing personnel every game.

“I don’t think we’ve kept the same 11, which is a shame, but that’s where we’re at.

“I’m having to sign players that haven’t had a lot of football, out of favour with other clubs or have come back from injury. They pick up injuries when you ask too much of them.

“We’re filling gaps and firefighting. It’s been tough but we have nine games to go and we have to keep believing.

“We have had a few chances now to get back-to-back wins and we’ve not managed it - you can see [relegation rivals] Phoenix Sports have done that and they have given themselves half a chance.

“We have to believe we can do that. It’s going to be tough, we have to play three of the top

six in the last nine games but we have to keep believing

and keep fighting for every point.”

Hythe were two goals ahead against Deal last weekend, with Anthony Adesite and Lex Allan scoring inside the opening 24 minutes. But injuries hit them again, forcing both Fikayo Ajyi and Charles Etumnu off at the break.

Enforced changes meant a switch in formation and Deal fought back, halving the deficit on the hour and scoring a second 10 minutes later.

Davis said: “Fikayo was absolutely brilliant at centre-half.

“He hasn’t played much in the last 18 months but made a massive difference coming into our defence. He was fantastic but had to come off.

“Charles in the middle also got injured so we had to shuffle it and change formation.

“The game could have gone either way. It must have been a good game for the neutral.

“Our keeper made a really good save when we’re 2-0 up and then we’re through on goal to make it 3-0 and we never capitalised. We had another opportunity before they scored.

“We had to make the changes at half-time and the emphasis switched to Deal. They’re very good going forward and score a lot of goals.

“When they scored the momentum shifts. They came at us and scored again and you think ‘Oh no, here we go’ but we had a fantastic chance to nick it.

“Jav [Splatt] was through on goal and given offside. We’ve seen it back and it’s not offside but they had a penalty shout late on.

“There was a lot happening in the game, and a draw was probably fair, but to have been 2-0 up we’re a bit disappointed not to have got all three [points], which is desperately needed.

“We had gone with a couple up-front to try and nick the win because three points would be massive for us.

“It won’t be any easier with the games against Burgess Hill and Sittingbourne.”

With regular keeper Joe Coleman injured and back-up stopper James Dillon unavailable, Davis turned to Charlie Wealands at the weekend and he didn’t let the manager down.

Davis said: “Charlie came in and did well. We had him before at VCD as back-up, he went away to university, came back to train with us, did well and we signed him on. He’s a good lad, a good player, and I am glad we had him signed on or we would have been a bit short.

“We train this week, it’s the first midweek we’ve not had a game for the last few weeks and that gives us a chance to dust ourselves off and have a good training session and see where we’re at.”