The Hollands & Blair manager has praised the positive impact of the new signings which helped them thump Welling Town 10-1 last Saturday.

Manager Luke Jessup fielded a new right-back after bringing key target Chris Edwards to the club while Chatham Town loaned them left-back Lesley Duru and midfielder Jabari Christmas.

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All impressed on a day when Blair’s whole team hit top form. Edwards arrived at the club from Punjab United and has previously been part of two separate title-winning sides at this level.

Jessup said: “Chris has made a massive difference down the right side already and he made a difference in training, the quality has gone through the roof.

“He is someone we needed in and someone we earmarked from the start.”

Jessup had watched Chatham Town’s 7-2 win over Hythe Town last Tuesday and both Duru and Christmas came off the bench in the Kent Senior Cup quarter-final clash.

Blair keeper Dan Ellis had lined up for Chatham that night as a favour to Chatham - one Jessup admitted was risky - but the arrangement has worked out nicely.

Jessup said: “We understood it was a big risk letting Dan go down there because if he got injured we don’t really have an obvious replacement but sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.

“I spoke to Kev (Hake, the Chatham manager) about fringe players, or youngsters they had that we’d be interested in, and Kev didn’t hesitate. He said who he would like to go out and get some experience and it’s worked out well, I can’t thank Kev enough, he’s been amazing.

“Jubari Christmas sits in that 8/10 role, he loves it in there and is very good on the ball, pulling strings. I was blown away with him on Tuesday and Kevin Hake said he was ours if we wanted him.

“Lesley Duru played left-back on Saturday and he was a class act. He’s played at a higher level, he has shored up that left side and has a great delivery on the left foot. He was arguably our man-of-the-match, he was brilliant.

“With him on the left and Chris on the right I would say we looked instantly a better team and a different team. We have done well there and I can’t thank Chatham enough.

“We have made a some great signings in the right areas and we played Welling off the park, we took them apart.”

Jessup was looking at adding another forward player in this week - one who could add a bit of pace to the frontline - but admitted it would be a stretch financially.

He’s currently got some experienced men up top. Rob Denness scored a 17-minute hat-trick against Welling and his half-time replacement was Richard Atkins. Jessup admitted Atkins wasn’t happy to be starting the match on the bench but liked the passion shown.

He said: “He wasn’t overly impressed but, like I tried to explain to him, we have hammered him of late playing every minute of every game, he’d been down to Deal and Lydd and having someone like Rob come back and a new arrival hopefully, we are just trying to unburden the load a little bit.

“Rather than it all being through one person we can spread it around and make it more of a squad thing so nobody feels too under pressure to perform each week,.

“I said to Rich, ‘I am glad you have reacted like that’, it showed me he cares, not that I didn’t think he did, but when someone gives you that sort of response you think ‘okay, you are invested.’

“We brought him on at half-time and he scored an amazing header, one Shearer would be proud of. I don’t know how he got his neck to do what it did. He had to lean back to get his head around the ball, the keeper was perfectly positioned but not for the pace it came in at. It was a bullet, it hit the underside of the bar, bounced down and went in. It was a great ball in as well.”

The cross came from Tom Walmsley who had a hand in most of the 10 goals scored and notched one himself too.

Recent addition Devonte West continues to impress and he scored twice.

“They were great finishes,” said the manager. “They weren’t little tap-ins, from the edge of the box he’s beating a couple of men, just unbelievable what he does and he could have had two or three more. I think he hit the woodwork as well.

“He didn’t disappoint and he’s worth the entrance fee alone, watching him, he was brilliant, absolutely first class.”

Next up for Blair is an away game against second-from-bottom Rusthall who gave Lordswood a hard game last weekend.

“More of the same would be great,” said the manager. “But like we highlighted with Welling, we know they are fighting to get out of there, we know they will be doing everything they possibly can to make sure they stay in this league and where they sit isn’t ideal for them.

“We have upgraded and improved our squad I would like to think we could be too much for them but you never know, we are not taking them lightly, we have done our homework on them and we just need execute it.”