Lydd Town start the new year on a high after back-to-back wins to finish 2023.

Luke Burdon’s last-minute strike earned a 2-1 victory at local rivals Kennington.

And that was followed by an impressive 4-0 home win over a Whitstable side whose skipper Tom Mills had been talking of a Southern Counties East title challenge.

Ronnie Dolan, Burdon and Sammy Adams (2) were the scorers.

A bit of local knowledge from Ryan Smith laid the foundations for the Lydders’ dominant display against the Oystermen last Saturday.

“It was windy, it was raining, it was a horrible day for football, but we played the conditions well,” said joint-boss James Rogers, who's been filling in at centre-half.

“Ryan Smith has played at Lydd all his life, he knows the ground and he said to go against the wind in the first half.

“We did that and managed to get 1-0 up and then we ran away with it in the second half.

“To be fair, it was our best performance of the season.

“I think they had one shot in 90 minutes and they’re one of the fancied teams as well.

“We’re in a good place. If we win our games in hand, we go deep into the play-offs.”

Lydd are up to 11th after back-to-back victories and have multiple games in hand over all the sides above them.

Next up are fifth-placed Erith Town, occupying the final play-off spot, at the Lindsey Field tomorrow (3pm).

Rogers believes the conditions will again favour his side.

“Erith are up there but we’re at home and I’m expecting it to be wet and windy, so it’ll probably be more of the same,” he said.

“They’re not a bad side but they were a footballing side when we played them before, not very physical at all.

“It’s going to be a different game for them down our place. I fancy us.

“We’ve worked on a few things at training, just to go and press and press and press as high as we can and stay focused in that press for as long as we can, and I think that was the difference on Saturday.

“We need to keep drumming the same thing into the players and what’s expected of them.

“If we can do that, with the players we’ve got coming back from injury and suspension, we’re going to be up there.

“We’ve got so many games to go and we’re starting to make strides.

“Hopefully we keep knocking those games off and see how we go.”