by Craig Tucker

Sittingbourne joint-boss Jim Ward has revealed he is already thinking about next season.

Brickies slipped to sixth in Ryman League Division 1 South after their 1-1 draw with Whitstable on Tuesday night.

But while they are still in the play-off race, Ward believes his side have a better chance of going up next term.

He said: "We’ll keep an eye on the play-offs. I don’t think we’ll bring in any more players. If anything, we’ll experiment with the ones we’ve got for next season.

"The squad is as good if not better than we expected with the budget we have had and now we’re looking to find out more about certain players. I mean their attitude and will-to-win. Let’s see who’s ready to step forward.

"A lot of these lads haven’t had a pre-season with us where we’ve picked up other teams’ cast-offs. They’ll have that this summer and that will only help."

Brickies host play-off hopefuls Crawley Down on Saturday. New signing Ashley Baverstock made his debut as a second-half substitute in Brickies’ 2-1 defeat at Merstham last weekend and is likely to be on the bench again.