Darren Blackburn hopes to become the first Sittingbourne manager to produce a top 10 finish for eight years.

The Brickies finished ninth in the 2012/13 season and they’ve been unable to match those heights since.

Blackburn was appointed manager in March but did not take charge of a competitive match until last weekend’s FA Cup exit at the hands of Deal.

“We’ve hardly had a top 10 finish in the last 10 years,” said Blackburn.

“We need to change that mentality and be aiming for the top 10 by Christmas.

“If we are in or around it then we can kick on and compete and aim to finish in or around the play-offs. That’s realistic for me.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on the players and we have to be realistic – success doesn’t happen overnight.

“My expectations, the club’s expectations and those of the players are probably slightly different. We’re all looking at it from our own angle.

“The club have worked very hard behind the scenes to get players in with experience so may feel we should be sitting comfortably in the table and be quite competitive.

“The players have come here to succeed; they’ve not come here to be bottom half.

“Then I have to manage that expectation and be more realistic. It’s a whole new squad so sometimes it will all click into place like it did when we played Harlow in pre-season and other times it might be a bit disjointed.”

Hopes are high after recent recruits included the return to Sittingbourne of popular midfielder Andy Drury, striker Kane Rowland and Vance Bola.

It’s not easy given the club’s resources – and Blackburn knows there are plenty of nearby suitors also chasing the same calibre of players, so he’s pleased with the quality added to their ranks.

“It’s not been an easy sell as we didn’t cover ourselves in glory last season,” admitted Blackburn. “You have to take it all into account.

“But the squad has come together in the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve struggled to compete locally because big clubs in the league below with good finances and facilities can attract players.

“We’re just unfortunate we are in this catchment area where we have to fight those teams, as well as the ones at our own level.

“Andy Drury brings great experience; you don’t play 100-plus games in the Championship if you’re not a decent player – he is quality.

“Kane Rowland scores goals and he’s still a young lad who is yet to reach his prime. I’ve been tracking him for a year or two so when Roman Campbell went to Ramsgate, I was able to move.

“He is hard-working, honest and gets on with his jobs. I hope he gets the goals that he deserves.”

Blackburn has waited a long time to get his managerial career at Woodstock under way – they start in Isthmian South East this Saturday at home to Whitstable.

But the Sittingbourne boss was keen to put it all into perspective.

“Covid has affected everything, from players to attention to recruitment, to club finances and sponsorship for everyone.

“The important thing for us though was that we sadly lost two of our fans to it during this time. So we can’t moan about this or that, Covid impacts people and families which is more important.

“Football will always be there and we just have to adapt like every other club to what is ahead of us.”

With Blackburn unable to get his stellar signings over the line until the season was almost under way, it was perhaps no surprise that they lost out to Deal in the FA Cup.

However, the Brickies boss refused to take anything away from their Southern Counties East League hosts on the day.

“I’ve no complaints,” he said. “The better team won. They just looked a bit more together and composed which you’d expect as they’ve been together for five years and Steve King is a good manager – credit to him, they fully deserved to win.

“If you concede a penalty after 40 seconds in any game then it’s going to be hard, but we were shell-shocked by it. We were still stunned when they scored the second goal. We had chances at 1-0 and 2-0 but we didn’t take them.”

First four league games: Sat Sep 19: Whitstable (h), Sat Sep 26: Cray Valley (a), Sat Oct 3: Faversham (h), Tue Oct 6: Ashford (h).

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