Jamie Coyle said Whitstable completely changed the way they play to pull off another FA Cup upset.

Town beat Hungerford 2-0 at The Belmont on Saturday in front of a big home crowd of 971 to reach the FA Cup fourth qualifying round for the first time.

Bradley Schafer’s first-half header and a classy Joe Healy finish booked their place in Monday afternoon’s draw.

Whitstable’s back three, led by captain Will Thomas, defended superbly to leave a big Hungerford side feeding off scraps, while the quality of Schafer and Healy caused plenty of problems in attack.

It was a third successive win over Step 3 opposition for Coyle’s Southern Counties East side and the most comprehensive yet after a change in approach.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” said boss Coyle.

“I’m proud of the players.

“Tactically, we’ve had to completely change the way we play because they’re a very physical side.

“We’ve watched all their games this season and we knew we wouldn’t be able to get any joy going direct.

“So we’ve had to play and we’ve had to change our shape.

“The way the players have conducted themselves in the first half, taking on all the information from Thursday, was phenomenal.

“In the second half we’ve had to change a little bit because they were pressing us better and stopping us getting out.

“And the boys, again, they’ve adapted and delivered a fantastic 98-minute performance that I thought they thoroughly deserved to be through.”

It could certainly be considered brave of Whitstable to change the approach that had brought them so much success in reaching the third qualifying round for the first time in 36 years, particularly with so little time to work on it.

But the players executed the game plan to perfection to move within one win of a place in the first round proper.

Coyle said: “We've done so much work behind the scenes in watching the games and we knew they would be more physical than us.

“So if we turned it into a fight, I think we would have lost.

“We’ve had to play a lot more through the thirds and the detail in the distribution from the back three in the first half and the pockets that Joe Healy was picking up was causing loads and loads of problems.

Report: Whitstable 2-0 Hungerford

“It wasn’t a smash-and-grab.

“I thought we were thoroughly the better team for the whole game.

“The players have got to take the credit because we've done our work and they've done their work on the grass.

“Hungerford are very physical, they’re a big set-piece team, so we had to stand up and be counted and be strong. And we've done that.

"But the other side is the most pleasing, where we completely controlled the tempo of the game.

“We played some really good football and showed a different side for the first time since I've been in this football club, that they're capable of playing a completely different way.

“To play a Step 3 club and be the better side for the whole game, outside of a five-minute spell where they were throwing everything in the box, long throws and set-pieces, the players have got to take huge, huge credit.”

Whitstable are looking forward to the draw as National League clubs join the competition in final qualifying.

Coyle said: “The draw excites us as a squad and it excites us as a management team because we want to test ourselves against the better clubs, the better coaches, the better managers.

"The faith I've got in the squad that we've put together is huge and we'd love to get a National League side and test ourselves tactically against them in the next round.”

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