Boss Marcel Nimani felt Whitstable’s season ended at the wrong time.

A single defeat in their final 10 matches of their 2022/23 campaign, including six wins, saw the Oystermen earn a fifth-placed finish in their first season back in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

Nimani said: “Our season came to an end at the wrong time, really.

“We were on good terms with the season and we wanted it to go on a little bit longer.

“But we left it on good terms.”

Whitstable had an indifferent start under the new boss after his appointment in mid-October and Nimani, who became their fifth manager in 13 months at the time, says there was plenty of work to do when he took charge at The Belmont.

He said: “When we first went into it, we had to fight off a few stereotypes.

“When you used to go away to Whitstable, it used to be a muddy pitch, you had to fight for your win, [defend] long balls, and we’ve completely taken that identity out and added ours.

“We inherited a team which was on a bit of a downward spiral, really, and had low self-esteem.

“The boys that were there, you could see they were desperate to win - they just didn’t have the cohesiveness among themselves to communicate their feelings. They didn’t have enough leadership.

“The moment something went wrong, the whole group collapsed and we had to change that.

“I realised quite early on that this wasn’t a group you had to push to get the best out of. So we took our foot off the gas and then we went for the psychological approach.

“We have, slowly but surely, built a confident and resilient side.

“If you look at the form after Christmas, we beat top of the league [Erith & Belvedere], second in the league [Phoenix Sports] and teams around us and went on some great unbeaten runs.”

Nimani is confident of keeping hold of the majority of his squad.

“We worked hard at building what we did,” he said.

“We have kept most of the key players that we wanted to keep, we have agreed for them to stay on.

“Things we’re really looking to maintain is our identity of play, we established good leadership within the team and looked at ways of behaving and communicating among one another, and turned the changing room into a playful environment.

“We worked hard at building the focus of the team on progress, rather than solely on the outcome.

“These are all fantastic strategies we have established within the team and we’re looking to carry that on for next season.

“To do that, we need to keep some of our key players and we have identified three or four positions where we want to strengthen for next year, where we have begun negotiations.”

Whitstable will start pre-season in around a month’s time and already have friendlies planned.

Among them is a home clash against Isthmian North Basildon United on Saturday, July 1.

Nimani confirmed: “We have already booked our pre-season. We are due to get back on Saturday, June 17 for our first training session.

“Moving onwards, we have booked eight friendlies - of which six are at home.”

Whitstable’s veterans team thrashed bottom team Real SocialDads 5-0 last Saturday to earn promotion to Thanet and District League Division 1.