Hollands & Blair newboy Tom Walmsley took his pre-season goal tally to six last Saturday.

He is one of the new faces brought in to give the side a fighting chance towards the top of the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

Traffic chaos turned Blair’s final friendly match of the summer at Hawkinge Town into a bit of a nightmare but Walmsley struck to gift them a 1-0 win and end the pre-season unbeaten.

Boss Scott Porter said: “I couldn’t play the team I wanted to because of players getting there late, the only beneficial [side] was that everyone got 45 minutes-plus and it is another result, pre-season is over now and we can get down to the business on Saturday.”

Thanks to the severe traffic problems heading towards the coast, some of the Blair contingent took over two hours to get to the Pavilion Ground. It meant Porter had to rethink his plans with four of his expected starters turning up just 15 minutes before kick-off.

Two midweek training sessions have given him the chance to work on extra bits ahead of their first game of the league season, away at Holmesdale this Saturday.

With Walmsley and Connor Sanders joining this summer, Porter feels he has strengthened a side who were already heading in the right direction after he took charge midway through the season. They were 15th when he took charge and ninth at the end of the 2021/22 campaign.

Porter said: “We want to be up there. There are a handful of teams that will fancy their chances, Sheppey and Chatham have gone up and we want to be one of those challenging.

“We haven’t got one of the biggest budgets in the league but we have got some loyal players and added Tom Walmsley and Connor Sanders, and we have some youngsters coming through, I am really happy with the squad. We have to start off lively and we definitely want to challenge.

“I had Tom at Whitstable five or six years ago. Now he has matured, he has learned his trade at Hythe and that has benefited him and he looks good for us. Connor Sanders has come back from injury, he is looking good and a plus for us.

“We have strengthened and we needed to. We are solid, we have experience, we just needed to score more goals and hopefully Tom can do that for us.

“Last season, considering where we were when I took over to when we finished, it was good, it’s a fresh start this season with everyone and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”

Blair are still unsure when they will get to play home games at Star Meadow due to delays in works to replace their natural pitch with a 3G surface. In the meantime, they will be sharing with Medway neighbours Lordswood.

“It is an obstacle we just have to get on with and have to just get on with it,” said the manager, who was heading into the weekend with an injury-free squad.