New joint-manager Ian Cox says it will take promotion form to keep Whitstable in Ryman League, Division 1 South.

That’s the challenge facing former Trinidad & Tobago World Cup defender Cox and Wayne Wilson after they were named as successors to Simon Halsey on Monday night.

They start work with Town bottom of the league having taken only seven points from 23 games. The Oystermen are 11 points adrift of safety going into the pair’s first game in charge, at home to East Grinstead on Saturday (3pm).

Cox joins from Ramsgate, where he was first-team coach under ex-Town bosses Jim and Danny Ward, while Wilson has left behind the club captaincy at Faversham.

The pair already work together coaching youngsters at Gillingham.

Cox, a former Gills and Burnley defender, said: “We’ve got a massive challenge but we believe we can stay up. Seven points from 23 games speaks for itself.

“We’re exactly halfway through the season, plus we’ve played more games than the teams around us.

“It’s going to take promotion form to get ourselves out of the bottom three but we have to be optimistic.

“We’re here to try and keep the club in the league, which is paramount. I don’t think we can go in with the attitude that we have nothing to lose by taking the job.

“Everyone’s saying the same thing, that we’re going down but we’ve got to be positive otherwise what’s the point of coming in? We’ve got to believe we can turn things around.”

The new management duo have wasted no time in trying to add to their squad, after putting in a seven-day approach for Faversham striker Dean Grant.