Whitstable goalkeeping coach Dan Eason has told how manager Jamie Coyle’s playing return inspired the team.

The Oystermen will hope it proves third time lucky when they face AFC Whyteleafe in their FA Vase final at Wembley on Sunday, having narrowly missed out on Southern Counties East League Premier Division promotion and the Kent Senior Trophy crown - despite their much-improved form following a poor start to the season.

Coyle, 41, inspired Whitstable’s upturn in fortune on the pitch as he laced up his boots once more and former No.1 Eason has compared Coyle’s impact to the one talismanic striker and captain Luke Harvey made when they were part of the Kent League title-winning 2011/12 team together at Herne Bay.

“When I played for Herne Bay, we had Luke Harvey,” Eason said.

“When he used to play, you just sort of relaxed and thought ‘Luke’s playing.’. That season, we won the league and got to the semi-final of the Vase but, if Luke didn’t play, we didn’t really play that well.

“I think Coyley’s like that. When he plays, I just think the players are more relaxed.

“That’s what I thought when Coyley started playing.”

That Bay side also enjoyed Vase success that term, albeit they fell narrowly short of reaching the final.

Eason revealed those from that team still remain in close contact.

On Whitstable’s Vase run this season, he said: “They probably do understand the achievement - but they will ‘really’ understand it in years to come.

“The year at Herne Bay when we nearly got there, we’re still in a WhatsApp group from that.

“When you play football, you become friends with different people and, when they move to different clubs, you don’t lose them as such, but you don’t always talk as much as you did when you played with each other.

“That Herne Bay team was 2011/12, we’re still in that WhatsApp group and still go out every couple of months - and we didn’t even get to the final!

“I have said to them that you will remember it for a very long time. I still remember it (getting close to the Vase final with Herne Bay) and that was nearly 15 years ago.

“That’s why they have got to cherish it.”

The Oystermen will be backed by more than 7,000 fans.

“Whitstable have always had a half-decent fan-base,” said Eason.

“That has just grown in the last couple of years. But things like this year - I know we fell short in the league - but that and the Vase run, it has brought fans in.

“I remember years ago, when players came in during pre-season, they would always say ‘Have you still got those singing fans?’. Having a good fan-base does help, bringing players in.

“Players generally want to play in front of quite a lot of people so it does help in that way.”

Vastly-experienced Whitstable striker Dean Grant also joined Eason and Harvey at Herne Bay in his younger days not long after their 2011/12 campaign.

Despite being cup-tied for the Oystermen’s Vase run, he still has played a huge role in the league and the Trophy this term, having adapted his game in recent years.

Eason noted: “He has gone from the quick in behind striker to a bit more physical.

“But he’s in his mid-30s so, when you get to that age, he probably has lost a little bit of pace - although probably not much.

“You have to change your game up. He is good at what Coyley calls the dark arts.

“When players go up to win headers, he knocks them off-balance and things like that.

"I don’t know how he gets away with it! But he does.”

While Eason is now part of the club’s backroom team, he is actually younger than 38-year-old midfielder Joe Healy and Coyle - something which became painstakingly obvious to the former in a largely youthful squad recently.

Eason said: “Joe Healy had to bring in sweets the other week and he brought in Nerds.

“Some of the boys were asking ‘What are they?’. I turned around and looked at Joe so we sort of made a joke of it.

“It had to be an old boy, bringing them in.”