Hollands & Blair are managing the first team in-house while they look for a new permanent boss after Scott Porter’s decision to leave.

Reserve coach Luke Jessop has stepped up to take charge of the team for the next couple of matches and there are a couple of experienced faces added to the squad for this Saturday’s game at home to third-placed Corinthian.

Porter has taken over as manager of Lydd, taking coaching staff Mark Lane and Shaun Welford with him. Young striker Harvey Welford has followed his dad to the Lydders.

Blair’s interim boss Jessop has experienced forward Rob Denness and defender Aaron Simpson stepping up from the reserves for the weekend clash. Midfielder Lewis Allen has returned to the club from Beckenham Town, where he played under former Blair coach Darren Anslow.

Chairman Paul Piggott is one of those at the club who can lend his hand to any coaching and management issues while they look for Porter’s successor and he insists they don’t need to make an immediate appointment.

“We are in no rush to appoint anyone,” he said. “We will take our time with it and get it right, there are enough good people around the club to see us through, whether that’s for a week, a month or through to the end of the season.

“Luke will do Saturday against Corinthian and then on Tuesday we have got Holmesdale at home, definitely those two games.

“As a club, we’re working alongside Soccer Elite at the facility, the club is going in a different direction to maybe how it was before, we are just resetting ourselves a bit and we are not going to rush into anything. We’ll take it week by week and see how we go.

“We have every faith in Luke to oversee the next two games but we don’t want to look too far ahead, we’ll see what comes out of the woodwork.”

Porter leaves Blair for fellow SCEFL Premier Division side Lydd Town and Piggott has only good things to say about his departed manager.

The management position at Lydd had been offered to Porter at the start of the season but he chose to stay at Blair, having beaten Fisher in the SCEFL Challenge Cup at the end of last season.

But with their cup hopes ended this season and sitting at the wrong end of the SCEFL Premier Division table, Porter felt the time was right for a new challenge at Lydd.

“It got harder and harder for him here,” said Piggott.

“He lives in Folkestone, he did a hell of a lot of travelling and to be fair to Scott, he never took a penny out of the club, he did it all off his own back and that is a lot of travelling and we always knew that.

“We can only give so much as a football club and Scott needed more to progress his managerial career, he wants to be successful and I would say that he was successful at the club, getting to two cup finals in two seasons at a club like ours is a massive achievement and we certainly don’t underestimate that.

“Scott needed to be competing consistently at the top end of the table and we hold no grudge, Scott has been great for us, we wish him all the best in what he does next.”

Blair haven’t officially advertised the management post but there has been plenty of interest.

Piggott said: “We like to think we’re in a good place and that interest in the job speaks volumes for me that the club is doing something right by the calibre of people showing interest in the job. We just want to make sure we get it right.”

Looking ahead to their weekend game, the chairman added: “We were getting a bit light in numbers but we have added the three players in for tomorrow, to strengthen us for numbers and to add a bit of experience.

“It will be a tough game, Corinthian are third in the league, fair play to them, coming down after being relegated wasn’t easy, but to be back competing in this league in their first year back shows they are doing something right.”