Sittingbourne manager Darren Blackburn has called for a big finish to the season.

Brickies’ Isthmian South East play-off hopes have faded in recent weeks but Blackburn took heart from a 3-0 home win over promotion-chasing Haywards Heath on Saturday.

Victory ended a run of three defeats and moved Bourne up a place to ninth.

While a top-five finish is a tall order - they’re eight points adrift with nine games to play - Blackburn won’t let the season peter out.

He said: “People will look at our team on Saturday and say there’s no superstars but what we have got is a good balanced group with no egos, just a really good bunch of lads.

“Probably seven or eight of them were 22 and under and that’s vital in moving forward.

“We’ve played a team with a budget considerably larger than ours and beaten them 3-0.

“Unfortunately, we’ve let too many games slip, which makes the play-offs more of an outside hope than a reality.

“We’ve still got teams above us to play and if we win them all we might be there or thereabouts.

“But, realistically, I just want to finish as high as we can.

“If we get to the last game of the season and a win means we jump even one place higher, that’s what I want to do.

“This club’s had years of falling away in the second-half of the season and we’ve got to keep the players motivated and hungry, even though the play-offs are possibly not realistic.

“The higher we finish up the table, it makes recruitment easier in the summer.

“If the season peters out and we finish 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, people will look and say they don’t really fancy it.

“It’s all about changing the dynamic, the culture, the attitude and putting the club back on the map.

“A lot of the time players makes decisions on who to join based on convenience, geography, travel and money.

“We don’t have all those things to offer players so we need everything we can to attract them and the higher we finish up the table, that will help massively.

“Not that we need to do too much in the summer, maybe just three or four in and out to freshen things up.”

Captain Kane Rowland opened the scoring, responding to a pep-talk from his manager, and substitute Johan Caney-Bryan struck twice in the win against Heath.

The pair also worked hard defensively in one of Sittingbourne’s most impressive results this season.

“I was looking at the stats and Johan’s actually started the majority of the games,” said Blackburn, whose side visit eighth-placed VCD this Saturday.

“He’s been on the bench now and again where we’ve got a varied frontline and I’ve tried to keep Kane in because he’s the skipper.

"I told Kane his performances in the last two games weren’t good enough and he’s in danger of a spot on the bench - there’s no exceptions, no favouritism - and he upped his levels on Saturday.

“He played really well and got his goal and Johan came on and scored twice but they also gave us so much defensively.

“I ask a lot of them and they’re always coming back for corners and set-pieces. They’re the first ones to jog back, they don’t need to be told, they never quibble.

“Their jobs are up in the changing room and they understand the importance of defending in those moments.

“It doesn’t come naturally to attacking players but Kane and Johan are very good at it.”