Folkestone captain Liam Friend knows a fast start to next season could make or break their championship hopes.

Friend and his team-mates, beaten in the play-off final on Saturday, are already plotting a way to replicate the sort of dominance shown by Ryman League Division 1 South champions Burgess Hill Town this season.

The Hillians finished 11 points clear of second-placed Invicta having been top for almost the whole season.

Folkestone won just four of their first 10 league games and that effectively put automatic promotion beyond them.

Friend said: "We’ve got to hopefully do what Burgess Hill have done this year and run away with it.

"In the last two seasons we’ve had two bad starts and come second. We have to make sure, next year, that we are up there fighting for the title from day one. If we don’t, we’ve let ourselves down.

"This year, we did well to get ourselves out of the trouble we put ourselves in at the beginning of the season but we have to be up challenging for the title next year."

Full story and the best play-off coverage in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.