By Alex Hoad

Hythe boss Scott Porter has backed his side to recover from the defeat which ended their nine-game unbeaten run to continue their play-off push in Ryman League, Division 1 South.

Town went down 1-0 to high-flying Whitehawk at Reachfields on Saturday after a last-minute goal and sit 10th ahead of Saturday’s trip to basement-boys Whyteleafe.

With fourth-bottom Sittingbourne to visit Hythe on Tuesday, Porter (pictured) has targeted a six-point haul to close the gap on the play-off pack.

Town are 12 points behind play-off hopefuls Maidstone but have played three games less and Porter has not given up hope on overhauling them, and several other sides above them.

He said: "The other results didn’t dent us too much. Now we have a couple of good games to get back on track. We won’t take either of them lightly but I want six points.

"We have got to win them if we want to get involved with the play-offs.

"We’re OK. We’re still up there and have still got one or two games in hand on sides above us. We’ll bounce back. I’m sure there will be plenty more twists and turns before the season is over."

He added: "You get the highs and lows in football and we’ve been from the joy of beating Dover to the pain of losing in the last minute within the space of a few days – it’s part and parcel of the game.

"It is all about how you react to things. We’ve come back from worse than this, we’ve come back from losing 8-0 this season."

Taser Hassan and Lee Winfield return to the squad for the trip to Surrey while Ronnie Dolan has agreed a contract to stay with the club until the end of next season.