Whitstable Town coach Richard Langley is hoping his scouting mission last weekend will pay dividends when the Oystermen take on title-chasing Whitehawk at Belmont this Saturday.

With the South Coast missing the worst of the snow, Langley travelled to Brighton to watch second-spot Whitehawk’s clash with sixth-placed Worthing – one of only two matches in Ryman League, Division 1 South to go ahead – and was encouraged by what he saw in the 1-1 draw.

He said: "Whitehawk and Worthing are our next two opponents so I took the chance to have a look at them.

"Whitehawk are obviously a good side and the league table doesn’t lie at this stage of the season but I think we will have half a chance."

After being without a game for the last three weeks, Whitstable were due to return to action in a friendly at Dover Athletic last night (Wednesday), where Langley was a former manager.

He said: "The weather hasn’t helped anyone over the past few weeks but we were pleased to fix up the game with Dover on their excellent pitch at Crabble."

Manager Justin Luchford planned to give a run-out to all his squad including Dan Wisker and Stuart Vahid, both on the return from injury, and also Laurence Harvey who, because of the bad weather, hasn’t had the chance to figure at all since his move from Maidstone.

Luchford is in the rare situation of having virtually all of his squad available for Saturday’s game.