Ryan Maxwell is predicting Sittingbourne’s toughest game of the season so far this weekend.

A top-of-the-table clash in Isthmian South East sees Maxwell’s second-placed Brickies travel to third-placed Chichester City on Saturday (3pm).

It’s all set up for a fascinating clash with Sittingbourne the second-highest scorers in the division with 19 goals in their eight matches.

On the other hand, City boast the meanest defence, conceding just twice in seven games.

“This will be our toughest game of the season so far - no doubt about it,” said Brickies boss Maxwell.

“They’re a good side and we’ll have to be at our absolute best to get a result.

“They’re up there for a reason - as are we.

“They must be well-drilled and they’re incredibly sound defensively to have only conceded two goals.

“We are very much at work this week looking for ways to expose any weaknesses they may have.

“The players have to be at their best in training to take in the information and carry out what we want them to do.

“I’ve said it before but we can be quite devastating going forward and we do create a lot, so it will be a game where we look to put their defence under pressure.

“We’ll have to do that because that’s our strength and we’ll have to be on our game defensively as well.

“For anyone interested in football from a tactical side, it’ll be an interesting game.”

Sittingbourne will need to improve on their performance at Burgess Hill last weekend to take anything at Chichester.

Ayman El-Moghaebel gave them an early lead but the Hillians levelled five minutes later and it ended 1-1.

Maxwell was unimpressed and made his feelings known after the game.

He said: “We scored a good goal and I felt we could have pushed on and taken the game away from them but we didn’t do that.

“We let them back into it when we didn’t need to.

“I was disappointed with the result because we had three points in our hands at one stage.

“The pitch was great, it was a great day to play football, but we didn’t kick on.

“We didn’t perform anywhere near as well as we have done recently.

“I understand we won’t hit those heights every week but we didn’t give a good account of ourselves for what this team is capable of.

“I just don’t think we were hungry enough to score a second goal. That’s the bottom line.

“That’ll be something I use as a reference point going forward, that 1-0 obviously isn’t enough and if there’s a second goal there for you, go and get it.

“We’ve had a few words regarding that and hopefully we’ll take something from it.”

It’s not the first time Maxwell has been unhappy this season but his team have always bounced back.

They don’t need to be brilliant all the time - but there’s a minimum level the manager expects.

He said: “What you look for is a base of performance that is similar week in, week out, or not far off.

“You don’t need to be exceptional, because you only get three points for a win, but I was annoyed on Saturday and I kept us in for a little while whereas in 60 seconds Burgess Hill had their music blaring and were celebrating the point.

“We certainly weren’t celebrating, mainly because we had three at one stage, and I’m just disappointed in the performance off the back of the last three games.

“If we played as we did against Sevenoaks, Erith & Belvedere and Herne Bay, or similar, we’d have got three points.

“You haven’t got to be exceptional, you’ve just got to be good and win.

“You don’t want to be up and down - that’s too much like guesswork - so it’s that consistency in performance I’m after. We didn’t lose on Saturday but I still see it as two points dropped.”

Summer signing Alex Bentley has started light training as he steps up his recovery from injury.

The experienced utility man is still to kick a ball for the Brickies.

“He’s started doing little bits,” said Maxwell. “He’s in the best place he’s been so far in terms of his comeback.

“He’ll be a brilliant addition when he does declare himself fit to get fully involved.

“Even though he’s not been playing, he’s still been around and getting involved, giving his opinions to the players and trying to support everybody. That shows the character of him.”