Scott Porter says Whitstable Town are close to being a top six side in the Bostik South East.

Whitstable lost 3-1 to second place Hastings United on Saturday but Porter was disappointed not to get something from the game.

It has given the manager and his side confidence to know they are not far off being where they want to be.

Porter said: “It is just those small margins that we have to deal with to be a top six side and that is where I want to be.

“It proves that we can compete in the top six.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t get anything from the game but I was pleased with the performance.

“We have to keep those performance levels up now for the rest of the season.”

Porter wants his side to cut out the soft goals in games coming up and that teams will pounce on these mistakes at this level.

He said: “It was disappointing that we did not get anything out of the game. The margins are very small at this level and we have to take our chances when they come.

“We gifted Hastings two goals and we had chances to get something from the game. That is the difference at this level. If you do not take your chances then you will get punished.

“There were a couple of individual mistakes and we will learn from it. We have spoken to the players about the game and not giving away soft goals.

“Someone said to me after the game that we were the best side that Hastings have played all season.

“They punished us for the mistakes we made. We got away with those sort of things last year but in the Bostik South East you can’t.”

Whitstable now have a week off between fixtures with their next match not due until Saturday, December 1, at Horsham.

Porter added: “We have a few knocks and niggles that we will hopefully get over with this week off. We have had a lot of games in recent month on Saturday’s and Tuesday’s so it will do us good.”