Ramsgate moved four points clear at the top of Isthmian South East after beating Sevenoaks on Saturday - but victory came at a cost.

Player-boss Jamie Coyle suffered a knee injury which will keep him out for a month, while Lee Prescott is struggling with his calf and will be sidelined for a week or so.

They join Ben Fitchett, who damaged ankle ligaments in Coyle’s first game in charge - a 2-0 win over Littlehampton - on the treatment table.

As a result, Rams were hoping to make a couple of signings in time for tonight’s top v bottom clash at home to Faversham, having brought in left-back Tom Carlse from Lewes at the end of last week.

The first of those is centre-back Taofiq Olomowewe, a former Burnley under-23s defender, who joins from National South club Welling.

Ramsgate have taken seven points from Coyle’s first three games to move from third to first, building on the midweek 1-1 draw at Beckenham with goals from Gil Carvalho and Jack Paxman in a 2-1 win at Sevenoaks.

They’re going well under their new manager but injuries are a concern.

“We’ve had some good performances, which I’m really pleased with, but we’ve picked up some important injuries,” said Coyle, speaking before the Olomowewe deal went through.

“I did my knee on Saturday, so that’s me done for a month, Prescott is struggling with his calf and we lost Ben Fitchett last week.

“It’s not great but we’ve got a couple of signings on the horizon, who want to come in and will give us a bit of quality, and hopefully we’ll have them in by Wednesday.”

Ramsgate lost 4-2 at home to Sevenoaks earlier this season and had learned from the experience going into the return game.

“It was a really good win," said Coyle.

“They were one of the favourites to win the league at the start of the season.

“They completely dominated us at our place and won 4-2 - they were the best footballing side I’ve seen this season.

“We knew we’d have to be compact and stop them playing because if you get pulled around they’re capable of scoring four or five goals.

“I can’t fault the boys. The effort and work rate and desire in all three games has been unbelievable.

“The attitude of the boys who’ve not been starting games has been phenomenal as well.

“If we’re going to achieve anything this season, we need the whole squad to stay together.

“If we carry on doing that, we’ll hopefully get our rewards at the end of the season.”

Coyle has upped training to twice a week as Ramsgate, who visit promotion rivals Sheppey on Saturday (3pm), bid to reach the Isthmian Premier.

It gives the manager extra time to get his ideas across and has gone down well with the squad.

“The players know we’re going to have to work hard between now and the end of the season if we’re going to achieve anything,” said Coyle.

“They’re all on board with the second session.

“I want to try and put my spin on things and you can’t do that on a tactics board in a team-talk.

“You need to be on the grass working with the players a couple of days a week and hopefully we’ll see the benefits.

“We just need to take it one game at a time and if we improve week by week and add bits to our identity as a team, we’ll be in a good place at the end of the season.”