Hythe Town manager Steve Watt says it will be down to him if Cannons miss out on Isthmian South East play-offs

Steve Watt feels he’ll have failed his players if Hythe Town don’t make the Isthmian South East play-offs.

The in-form Cannons host Haywards Heath in their final game of the season this Saturday (3pm) hoping to secure a top-five finish.

They were among the pre-season relegation favourites, having narrowly stayed up last year and running with one of the lowest budgets in the league.

Money often talks but boss Watt was determined to prove otherwise after returning to Reachfields and felt he could build a play-off team.

He’s maintained that all season and on Saturday they moved into the top five with a game to go after coming from a goal down to win 2-1 at VCD.

Defender Jason Fregene - a player who nearly left the club - scored both goals as the Cannons secured a fifth straight win.

Beckenham and Cray Valley went back above the Cannons by winning their games in hand on Tuesday night but the play-off battle is going to the wire.

Hythe are seventh, level on points with sixth-placed Sheppey and a point behind Cray Valley, who occupy the final play-off spot.

Watt said: “People laughed when I said this was a play-off team but I didn’t come back to Hythe just to survive.

“If I thought that was the case, I wouldn’t have come back. I’d have stayed out of management.

“I know what it takes to get out of this league.

“It takes athleticism, it takes height, it takes being organised and having a bit of horribleness about you.

“It takes a bit of everything, which we’ve got.

“You just need consistency to go with it, which we’ve had in the second half of the season.

“Yes, the budget’s tight, but I felt I could put together a team capable of making the play-offs, so I’m not surprised we’re in the position we are.

“We’ve gone the long way