Whitstable joint-boss Danny Ward claims Saturday’s visit of Whyteleafe is Town’s biggest game of the season so far, as the teams battle for a Ryman League Division 1 South promotion play-off place.

Town’s stunning 3-2 win at promotion-chasing Folkestone Invicta on Saturday was a statement win which gave hope that Town’s progression to within two points and two places of the final play-off spot – occupied currently by Leafe – might be sustainable.

Ward said: “Not many teams will beat Folkestone this year, and to be honest we could have scored six or seven. We were excellent. We quietened the crowd and their bench.

“It was a very good performance, and that’s despite losing our talisman, Ian Pulman, after 60 minutes and Tom Loynes early in the second half. They scored with a minute of injury-time to go but then at Whitstable we don’t believe in making things easy for ourselves.”

With 16 games to go, Saturday’s visit of Whyteleafe (3pm) provides a crucial opportunity to establish the Oystermen’s place in the pack fighting for realistically just a single play-off berth, given fourth-placed Folkestone’s 12-point cushion over fifth spot.

Ward said: “It’s our cup final. It’s certainly the biggest game since we’ve been here.

“(Sixth-placed) Worthing are going very well and (eighth-placed) South Park have games in hand, but someone always makes a move late and we’ve said to the players a couple of weeks ago, why can’t that be us?

“We’d love to make the play-offs, why not? I don’t think any team would want to play us in the play-offs.”

After four straight wins, Ward added: “The expectations around the club are high again, but they should have been even higher.

“We had our little run before that when we lost against Merstham, Guernsey and South Park, which brought them back down, but we should have probably taken seven points from those games and the expectations would have been madness if we had.”

Ward hopes Pulman (hip), Loynes (illness) and Nick Treadwell will be fit for Saturday

Joint-bosses Jim and Danny Ward – on whom a four-page feature appeared in national magazine FourFourTwo last week – will meet fans at the Belmont clubhouse on January 28 (7.30pm).