Canterbury City’s new management duo had a baptism of fire at the weekend - but it’s a job they are keen to take on long term.

Joint-bosses Sam Wilson and Dan Lawrence were placed in charge initially for a couple of games, starting with a match against league leaders Chatham Town. The game ended in a 3-0 win for the Medway side.

Many hours were spent putting a team together, with eight first-team players missing and a couple pulling out on the morning of the match. A patched-up side battled well against Chats, but their quality shone through in the end.

The defeat certainly hasn’t put the pair off, though.

City were left looking for a new manager following Chris Woollcott’s resignation. Wilson stepped up from his role as No.2 to work alongside vastly-experienced player Lawrence.

“I think me and Dan are the people to take it until the end of the season,” said Wilson.

“We know the group, we have the contacts and we are already implementing massive changes on and off the pitch.

“We have 18 games to go. Myself and Dan have talked for hours and hours and we have an action plan. We know what we need to do it and we are ready to do it.”

Wilson was appointed assistant manager by Woollcott and was grateful to the outgoing boss, saying: “I will always be grateful for the trust shown by Chris in appointing me for his support and guidance he gave me during his time as manager.

“I wish him nothing but the best for the future and hope to see him in a dugout again soon.”

The match against Chatham was a tough one. The visitors were dominant but it wasn’t completely one-sided and it needed a good save by the visiting keeper to deny young wing-back Harry O’Donnell with the score goalless.

Chats took a first-half lead through Jack Evans and he doubled the advantage with a free-kick from the edge of the box shortly after the restart. Ryan Hayes made it three with the keeper off his line. The defeat left City 16th in the table.

“It was a tough game,” said player-boss Lawrence. “We had a week to get a side together and must have spoken to 20-30 players. We ended up with four new faces and four under-23s in the squad.

“We have called in favours. Ben Smith at Herne Bay helped push a few players our way and we are thankful to him for that. It is about who you know and luckily I have played at this level too many years now!

“We managed to get good players in and it is testament that they have come in with no budget and worked as hard as they did. People have paid their own money to make it to the game and play. With a squad we are building we will be all right.

“We couldn’t have asked for any more from the players. We frustrated them for spells and we just had a couple of stupid mistakes and a free-kick against a side who are top and scoring goals for fun. We have got this short term but we are planning for the end of the season and hopefully they will give it to us.”

Among the new faces was Luke Illsley from Herne Bay, named as captain, while Michael Schweigert and Simon Kabamba came into the defence - the latter going off injured in the second half.

Wilson added: “We are looking forward to the challenge that we have ahead of us and putting a team out that people can be proud of every single week.

“The performance on Saturday suggested that. We might have lost 3-0 but at the same time they grafted and the mentality, the attitude and desire, was there.”

City head to Deal Town next, playing at The Charles Sports Ground on Monday.