by Kevin Redsull

Hythe Town manager Scott Porter has warned his players their excellent pre-season form will count for nothing if they don’t produce in Saturday’s opening Ryman League Division 1 South game at Walton Casuals.

Porter, pictured, saw his side beat Aveley 3-2 in their final warm-up game last Saturday to make it seven wins in seven friendlies and said: “We’ve scored plenty of goals in pre-season and there’s plenty of confidence in the side.

“But I have told the boys it’s a completely different game this Saturday and that they have got to go into it with the right mentality.”

The fact Hythe lost 1-0 at the Surrey outfit in April is also still fairly fresh in Porter’s memory and he is determined to avoid a repeat of 12 months ago when Hythe – having just come up from the Kent league – lost three of their first five matches.

He said: “We got off to a bad start last time and it left us playing catch-up all season and we don’t want the same thing to happen again. You need to be more consistent in this league.”

Two first-half goals from Brendon Cass and a second-half strike from new signing Jake Hobbs gave victory over Aveley at Reachfields, where they will return next Tuesday for their first home league game against Herne Bay.

Ronnie Dolan is ruled out of the trip to Walton Casuals but Porter has increased his midfield cover by signing George Savage from Sevenoaks.

Centre-half Craig Cloke will miss the opening two games while Porter must watch the opening two matches of the new campaign from the stand as he serves a two-game touchline ban carried over from the end of last season