Lydd Town boss Mickey Doyle has called on his big players to step up in the Southern Counties East Division 1 play-offs.

Town have home advantage in tonight’s semi-final against Faversham Strike Force as third plays fourth at the Lindsey Field (7.45pm).

Win that and they’ll visit Tooting Bec or host Larkfield & Hythe in the final this Saturday.

A home final would kick off at 3pm but Lydd face a 7pm start if they go to Tooting Bec.

“I think it’s the most exciting way to go up, if you win the play-offs,” said Doyle, whose men lost and drew against Strike Force in the regular season.

“If you win the league with two games to go your comedown starts earlier but if you go up through the play-offs, it breeds extra energy and momentum.

“That was my goal at the start of the season.

“I felt if we got in the play-offs it would be a great year.

“We’ve done it the hard way and we probably could have challenged Snodland for the title for a little longer but we’ve reached our target.

“We’ve got a one-in-four chance at the moment and if we get through the semi-finals it's one-in-two.

“They’re all good sides in the play-offs, no question.

“We’re confident we can beat any of the other three on our day and they’ll probably feel they can beat us as well.

“It’s a one-off game and we’ve got to make sure we turn up with the right attitude and our heads in the right place.

"Everything’s in place at the club and the players deserve to be here because they’ve worked really hard for it.

"I’ve always said our hardest opponent is ourselves, if we’re not on it, so we’ve got to make we turn up.

"These games are all about moments

"We’ve got Luke Burdon, who’s the king of moments.

"There’s Ryan Smith, who’s an absolute maverick, Kenny Pogue, who’s been there, seen it and done it, and the same for Richard Atkins.

“We’ve got big players who can do the business and we only need one of them to turn up properly and we’ve got a good chance of making the final.”

Lydd beat Meridian VP 7-0 at home in their final game of the league campaign.

Burdon scored twice, with Atkins, Pogue, Jack Price, Troy Howard and Timmy Babington also on target.

They only discovered their play-off opponents on Monday night after Larkfield lost 1-0 at home to Forest Hill Park, missing the chance to move above Lydd.

Doyle said: “It was a bit annoying because we didn’t know who’d we’d be playing or whether we’d be home or away. It doesn’t give you much time to prepare.”