New Herne Bay manager Kevin Watson won’t be making wholesale changes to his squad.

Watson has taken charge of two games in his first week and faces another crunch Isthmian Premier clash this Saturday when Bay host Wingate & Finchley at Winch’s Field.

But with a busy Christmas schedule on the horizon and Watson keen to give his current squad a fair chance of implementing his methods, don’t expect a deluge of new arrivals.

“It’s a strange time of the season,” said Watson.

“Traditionally if you’re at a club and get the opportunity to identify targets and speak to them then it’s a bit of an open forum in pre-season as everyone can speak to everyone.

“At this time of year we’ve got to identify players, wait seven days and then speak to them.

“It needs to be right for them to come to this level, the travelling to Herne Bay and be willing to be part of what we’re going to do.

“There’s lots of caveats and things to consider if we’re bringing players in.

“Obviously, the squad as it is has a few injuries with Marcel Barrington, Michael West and Jack Parter out so we need to assess when they will be back as well.

“At the moment the squad is relatively light so there is an opportunity to bring some new faces in if people want to come on board.

“In essence, have we dismissed bringing people in in the short term? Absolutely not. Will the current players get an opportunity? They have so far and will do, yes. We can’t and won’t make wholesale changes.”

Bay sit seven points adrift of safety in the league, a spot occupied by this Saturday’s opponents.

Victory will cut that gap to four and see Bay have a game in hand but defeat extends it to 10.

“However we get the points, whether it’s against the teams in and around us or those higher up the table I don’t really mind,” said Watson. “Every game is a big game when you’re second from bottom.

“We’re facing an opposition that are in and around us in the table, I don’t know too much about what they will bring as I haven’t seen them this season.

“That’s another aspect for me and (assistant) Adam Flanagan, some teams we know lots about and some we don’t but we’ll do our research and find out what we can and then set our stall out.”

While the rest of the nation were glued to England’s World Cup clash with Wales on Tuesday night, Watson had his troops in for training.

There’s no time to waste as they look to guide themselves away from the danger zone.

“I can’t sit here and say ‘yes, we’ll get out of it’ or ‘no, we’re not going to’, but what we will do is work effortlessly and with vigour and intensity to do that,” stated Watson.

“I imagine lots of teams because of the England game on Tuesday night didn’t train. We did train, and that’s testimony to the way we’re trying to approach things.

“We’d only managed to have one training session before this week so if we hadn’t trained on Tuesday that would have only been two sessions heading into Saturday’s game. It’s another opportunity to work on things, and you’ve got to take those opportunities.”

Watson’s opening league game in charge was a 1-1 draw at home to fellow strugglers Brightlingsea. Kymani Thomas’ 75th-minute goal was cancelled out by Suleyman Zuhdu six minutes later.

“Prior to Saturday the team had eight points from 16 games so were averaging 0.5 points a game so getting a point statistically is a move in the right direction,” noted Watson.

“In terms of the results in and around the bottom, no team really gained any ground on us as such. If you go one goal behind and you equalise like Brightlingsea did then it’s deemed more positive than if you go 1-0 up and then concede.

“At this stage it’s more for us learning about the players and them learning about us so Saturday was more about that.”