Hythe striker Dean Grant has backed the Cannons to fire in Bostik South this season once they can find their consistency and learn to ‘play ugly.’

After Town's five-game unbeaten run ended in last Saturday's defeat at Sittingbourne they responded with a 2-1 home win against Thamesmead on Tuesday night.

The 27-year-old frontman insists Hythe will find the right formula.

He said: “Before Saturday we had a good little run going and we were starting to build some momentum.

“And although team morale has been good all along, winning helps and the changing room has been buzzing.

“Hopefully, Saturday was just a blip and we can get back to trying to find the consistency we want to achieve.

“When everything is great, we can be amazing but it’s the scrappy games like Saturday where we maybe show some naivety.

“We’d have probably been happy with a 0-0. Sometimes we need to think let’s consolidate, take a point and move on.

“We want to keep picking up those wins and those points and if we do it the ugly way, then so be it.”

Town lost their opening three Bostik South games and were dumped out of the FA Cup at home to Corinthian Casuals and Grant said: “It was a frustrating start to the season.

“We all know just what we’re capable of. We know on our day it would take a very good team to beat us.

“I can’t put my finger on why there are games when we couldn’t score. I try to analyse everything in the days after a game and think about how I could have been
better.

“We have to be more ruthless. Earlier in the season we had 90% of the game and probably 10-plus shots against Phoenix and managed to lose 2-0 and we threw away a 2-0 lead against South Park last week.”

Hythe begin their FA Trophy campaign on Saturday (3pm) with a trip to Bedfordshire to take on Evo-Stik South East side Kempston Rovers.