New boss Nicky Southall has identified a lack of fitness as the major issue holding back Lydd Town.

The Lydders remain bottom of the Southern Counties East Premier Division, five points from safety, after losing 2-1 at high-flying Larkfield & New Hythe on Saturday.

Southall’s side led through new signing Jerson Dos Santos but ran out of steam and conceded twice in the last 20 minutes.

It’s a recurring theme for Southall who saw Lydd beaten by late goals against Whitstable in the FA Vase and Rusthall in the league before he took charge.

They were also beaten at the death by Lordswood in his first game as manager.

Southall made it a priority to get the team training after taking over and the need is greater than ever.

“We’ve got a really strong squad but where they haven’t been training since the start of the season, they just seem to run out of steam in the last 20 minutes,” he said.

“Other teams seem to get on top of us and concentration levels suffer.

“When you’re not 100% fit, you either switch off mentally or physically.

“We’ve got to train and, ultimately, the lads have got to want to train.

“They’ve got to go away from the club and really look at themselves and ask themselves if they’re doing enough away from the club in terms of fitness?

“You only train once a week or twice a week but if you want to get out of this mess, and they’ve got themselves in a mess, they need to start looking after themselves a little bit more away from the club.

“I said to them after the game on Saturday, you’re so close, losing by the odd goal.

“These late goals keep going in and that has to be down to fitness because it’s not the talent - the talent is there.

“The common denominator is they need to be sharper in their minds.

“When you’re fit, you’re fit in your mind, your awareness and everything, it all comes together.

“It’s not body shape or weight loss or having a six-pack, if you’re fit, you’re fit in the mind, you can make decisions better. That’s what we’ve got to get better at.

“It’s not a nice thing to say to the boys, that you’re not fit enough. I don’t want to say that.

“We just need a win, to give the players a little bit of confidence, something to grab hold of, and they’ll go on a run.”

As well as signing goalscorer Dos Santos, Southall has brought in centre-half Jacob Strouts from his former club Lordswood.

Lydd host Rochester in a rearranged Challenge Cup third-round tie tonight (Wednesday, 7.45pm).

They visit Erith & Belvedere in the league this Saturday (3pm).