Hythe boss Steve Watt says there’s play-off belief among his squad.

The Cannons are up to ninth in Isthmian South East, only three points off the top five, after beating Sittingbourne 1-0 at home last night.

Toby Bancroft scored a last-minute winner in a match that saw the Brickies finish with nine men after red cards for new signing Sergio Uyi and Youseff Bamba.

It was a fifth win in six games for Steve Watt's in-form side, who beat title-chasing Chatham 1-0 at Reachfields on Saturday with Johan Caney-Bryan's early header.

They've now kept 10 clean sheets in the league season.

Hythe lost 6-1 at Chatham earlier this season but set the record straight with a performance that underlined their play-off potential despite operating on one of the smallest budgets in the division.

“We were really good on Saturday - I couldn’t be more proud of the players,” said Watt, speaking before the Brickies game.

“It was good to right the wrongs of the last time we played Chatham.

“I just asked the players to be us. I said as long as were ourselves it would be a tight game and when it’s like that, you’ve always got a chance.

“It could have been 2-0 at half-time and then it would have been more comfortable.

“Ethan Smith, who was man-of-the-match, had an unbelievable shot that hit the underside of the bar.

“Second half, Chatham came at us, as you’d expect, but over the course of the game we restricted them to two chances in 90 minutes.

“People don’t expect us to be around it but we’ve always had that belief in the dressing room that we are a play-off team.

“We’ve said that all season, we’ve just not been able to string those results together.

“It’s that lack of consistency where we’ve shot ourselves in the foot but you hope the penny will drop.

“We didn’t deserve to beat Corinthian last Tuesday (2-1 victory) and I said to the players before we played Chatham, let’s make sure that game means something.

“We can all think back to a game that changed the course of a season and it’s important you back it up.”

Watt, however, is still conscious of what’s going on below them in the league as Hythe visit Littlehampton on Saturday (3pm) and host Burgess Hill next Tuesday (7.45pm).

“You’ve always got to worry about what’s going on behind you,” said Watt.

“It only takes a couple of bad results and you end up being dragged back into it.

“This little run we’ve been on has given us some breathing space and we’ll see where we can go from here.

“The goal for the club is to stay in the division.

“First and foremost, that’s what we have to try and do.

“We need to get to 40 points as quick as possible (they have 38) and then everything from there is a bonus.

"We’re proving one or two people wrong who don’t think they have to worry about us but there’s no pressure on us at all.”