A familiar face is back at Whitstable.

Teenager Gus Barnes left in the summer for Ashford but the teenage forward has rejoined the Oystermen on dual-registration, coming off the bench on Saturday as they lost 2-1 at home to Punjab.

“A big thanks to Tommy [Warrilow, Ashford's manager] for arranging it, we will see how he gets on,” said Whitstable head coach Craig Coles.

“He got a good 30 minutes on Saturday but he has not played a lot for Ashford so it will be a case of getting him a bit of match fitness.”

Under Coles and new manager Marcel Nimani, Whitstable had made an encouraging start before their loss to Punjab despite James Jeffrey’s late consolation effort in front of a crowd of 388.

Quite remarkably, although sixth in the Southern Counties East Premier Division, they have still only won once at The Belmont on their new 3G pitch all season.

Asked if he felt other sides were raising their game when visiting Whitstable, Coles replied: “There’s a little bit of that.

“Personally, I do think there’s a mentality thing there as well.

“If you look back at last season, a lot of home games ended in defeats and, before we came in, they had only won once at home. To be fair, we are probably one of the biggest clubs in the league, so they [other teams] want to play us but we have to rise above the challenge.

“We want to give fans something to come down to. For far too long, the club has been in a position where fans are waking up and thinking ‘Do I really want to watch?’ and having had supporters not necessarily going down, expecting results.

“As much as it’s about us doing things the right way, it’s about changing the mentality of the players and the fans.

“But it was chucking it down at the weekend and there were still nearly 400 people there. On Saturday, the statistics don’t lie - they scored twice and we scored once. But first half, we made the most passes of any team in the league this season.

“From that perspective, we are trying to build something. On the flip side, it’s also about trying to have the end product.”

The Oystermen’s only home victory came against Rusthall - who they’ll visit this Saturday.

“Rusthall started the season on fire, they came straight out the blocks,” said Coles.

“I know they have had a bit of a dip but it’ll be a tough game.”

Midfielders Harrison Carnegie and Helge Orome are now at Isthmian South East Faversham but they remain on dual-registration with Whitstable.

Coles said: “They are both signed with us. They are at Step 4 clubs so we have them on dual-registration.

“They are both very good footballers. I’m sure Faversham were not the only club in Step 4 after them, they are both quality players. I can only wish them the best.”

The Oystermen began life under Nimani with two games in three days - which they both won - and with a Challenge Cup encounter away to Division 1 Greenways on Monday, they have a similar period coming up.

Coles thinks they’ll use the matches to test out the squad’s strength in depth, however he’s also keen to have a good cup run for the fans.

He said: “I would say, to a certain extent, we have probably done that already [rotated the squad]. We have used quite a few players with Harrison and Helge playing, and Josh Oliver started on Saturday. He hadn’t started until now.

“It’s a case of giving the players opportunities and of them taking them. The biggest thing is we already played two games in three days. We have got Rusthall and Greenways who play at K Sports. It will be a case of recreating that.

“Potentially, we might rotate the squad a little bit more at Greenways but myself and Marcel want to get a cup run going for the fans.

“It would be good to give something back to the fans because they deserve it.”

Former under-18 captain Cameron Chamberlain, a defender, was fit enough to make their squad against Punjab, although he was an unused substitute.