Clive Cook hopes additional training will help Hythe’s quest for consistency in Bostik South.

Ahead of the league clash against Whyteleafe at Reachfields on Saturday (3pm), boss Cook admits the Cannons have been ‘up and down’ so far this season.

However, he praised Hythe for ‘winning ugly’ at Kempston Rovers in the FA Trophy preliminary round on Saturday.

Dean Grant scored the only goal to set up a trip to Bostik Premier Leatherhead in the next round on October 28 and Cook said: “It’s a cup game – anything can happen.

“We are looking forward to it. It’s always good to play against a side from a higher level and see how far you’ve come.”

It was a second straight win after seeing a five-match unbeaten run ended by Sittingbourne and Cook hopes they can build on it with just one game a week to focus on in the coming weeks.

With no midweek game, Cook was able to hold Tuesday night training in addition to Hythe’s regular Thursday night sessions.

He said: “That’s good for us, hopefully we can have a few Tuesday-Thursday sessions now. It’s good to work on things and it helps clear our injuries up.”

A double from Jerson Dos Santos ensured a 2-1 league win against Thamesmead last week which took Hythe within a point of the play-off places after a quarter of the season.

Cook said: “We played well and it should have been a lot more than 2-1. We created chance after chance and they only got their goal in the last few minutes to make it a bit nervy, which seems to be the way things are going at the moment.

“We have got some good footballers in our side. If we start well, you can see the confidence and the buzz. What we need to accept, though, is that we are not always going to play pretty tiki-taka football.

“Hythe always used to have a reputation for being able to walk away from the hard games 1-0 and we need to instil that in this new group of players.”

Long term absentees Callum Emptage and Will Thomas could be back within a month and Cook said: “It will be like having two new players coming in.”