Manager Steve Watt believes it would be a bigger achievement for Hythe to make the play-offs again this season.

A series of postponements, both home and away, have left the Cannons playing catch-up in Isthmian South East and facing midweek matches for the rest of the campaign.

Saturday’s game against Sittingbourne at Reachfields was the latest victim of the weather.

But they played last night, with Johan Caney-Bryan’s early goal earning a 1-0 home win against Littlehampton.

Hythe have suffered more than most over the winter months.

They appointed contractors to work on the pitch but often it’s been too wet to get machinery on to it.

The Cannons are up to ninth, 14 points behind Herne Bay, who occupy the final play-off berth, following last night’s win.

They still have five games in hand on Steve Lovell’s side and travel to Winch’s Field this Saturday (3pm)

Watt said: “We’re within striking distance, we just to put a few wins together in a row to get our momentum back.

“But I do think if we make the play-offs again this season it will be an even bigger achievement than last year because of what we’ve got to do now.

“Even if we’d played two or three extra games, and had six more points, it would make it much more manageable because the gauntlet the players have to put themselves through is not as demanding.

“But now we’re Saturday-Tuesday to the end of the season with not a massive squad.

“We’ve got people starting to come back now but we’re still missing a few players.

“So I think it would be a bigger achievement than last year just because of what the players are going to have to go through.

“Basically we’re going to have play over 40% of our season in eight weeks - 17 league games in eight weeks. It’s mental.

“If we don’t get to the play-offs, it won’t be difficult to figure out why we haven’t.

“At the end of the season, you look at what you did well, what you didn’t do well and if you didn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve, why not? It won’t take too long to analyse our season.”

Herne Bay recently moved back into the play-off places and on Saturday drew 1-1 at Erith & Belvedere.

“They’re one of the teams we’re trying to catch and obviously we’ve got games in hand,” said Watt.

“Loves is doing a great job there, as I knew he would, building a team from scratch.

“It’s no surprise to see where they are at the minute.

“We’ve still got to play them twice, so it’s a big game for us on Saturday, knowing if we can beat them and get that little bit closer, we’ve still got them to come at home.”

Hythe host new leaders Cray Valley on Tuesday (7.45pm)