New Sittingbourne boss Chris Lynch is expecting a tough couple of weeks while his changes take effect.

Brickies lost 4-0 at Ramsgate in Lynch's first game in charge and went down 2-1 at home to VCD last night.

Bostik South East play-off contenders Haywards Heath are next up at Woodstock this Saturday as Lynch tries to steer Sittingbourne away from danger while overhauling his squad.

Four new players - Manny Ndew, Arben Muskaj, Billy Lewins and Liam Middleton - started at Ramsgate, with Henry Woods also involved after rejoining on loan from Gillingham.

Lynch has also signed Joshua Spence, Remell Davis and two more Gills youngsters, striker Roman Campbell and full-back Jack Morrell, on loan.

Campbell marked his debut with a goal against VCD.

It's been a hectic start for Lynch, who quickly identified areas to strengthen, as well as needing to replace the likes of Dan Parkinson, Ira Jackson and Bola Dawodu, who left shortly before Aslan Odev's departure.

Lynch said: "They're not ideal circumstances so the players just need a bit of time to get to know each other and work out where each other is going to be on the pitch.

"At the moment, there are going to be no doubt a couple of difficult weeks ahead but that's only natural.

"As long as we're making progress every week then I am confident that by the end of the season we will be safe.

"It's just a case of getting that process in order.

"I'd rather have the difficult games now knowing we go into them having players who need to gel, rather than games we may well expect to get points from and don't.

"We're not expected to win these difficult games but if we do it's a bonus.

"Moving on, there's a series of games where the team should have got to a point where they know each other a little bit better and we'll be looking to push on from there."

One benefit from having a virtually new side is that Sitingbourne will be an unknown quantity.

Lynch said: "People aren't going to know what to expect.

"They won't know whether we're going to be playing football on the deck, whether we'll be long ball, and that's the way I'd like to keep it for the time being.

"We know what we're going to be doing and it's down to us to take our game to all our opponents and see if they can handle it."