Tim Dixon takes Hythe Town to Guernsey tonight (Wednesday) – but the Cannons boss almost had to miss the flight to the Channel Islands.

Dixon, who works for Port Shipping Ltd in Dover, has had to book off two half-days to accommodate the trip and two of his key players are staying on the mainland because of work commitments.

There are no flights back from Guernsey after the full-time whistle so the Cannons will stay in a hotel before travelling back to the UK on Thursday morning.

Dixon said: "I work for a small company and four people are on holiday so I only made the decision on Sunday that I was going to be able to go.

"I’ll work before we fly and again when we get off the plane on Thursday.

"I’ll leave Dover at 12.30pm, we meet at Gatwick and the lads will have to park themselves.

"We’ll have a little get-together, a quick chat and the pre-match meal will be in the airport before we fly out at 4pm.

"Guernsey will put us up overnight, we’ll fly back at 10.20am, get back through customs by about 11.45am and I’ll be back in work around 1.30pm."

Stephen Butcher and Josh Burchell are unable to make the trip and Scott Punton is suspended, although Ben Jordan has made himself available.

With the Cannons still winless in Ryman League Division 1 South, it’s a fixture which Dixon admits has come at exactly the wrong time for his new-look team.

He said: "It’s unwanted. That’s the best way of putting it.

"We’ve got to go to the island with a lesser squad than if we were playing someone like Carshalton on a Wednesday night and we shouldn’t have to do that.

"Guernsey are in the league for the right reasons but we shouldn’t have to go to their place with a lesser squad, it’s as simple as that."

Read the full story in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.