Sittingbourne beat Canterbury City 6-0 on Tuesday but bigger teams await; Dulwich Hamlet up next for Nick Davis' Isthmian League side

Sittingbourne’s pre-season challenge is being turned up a notch.

Nick Davis’ side swept aside Southern Counties East Canterbury City 6-0 on Tuesday before a handful of higher-place teams come to visit.

National League South Dulwich Hamlet head to play the Brickies on Friday night before games at home against Isthmian Premier pair Herne Bay on Tuesday, August 2 and Margate the following Friday, August 5.

On Saturday the team trained together ahead of a busy run of fixtures and Davis said: “Seventy-five to eighty per cent of the side are new. It is important we hit the ground running and so far, so good.

“We have got some good, experienced players at very good ages that have played a lot higher and they are managing the games - it is less work for myself!

“We need to be tested more, for sure. I want to see us stretched and to see us under pressure. I am certain in these remaining games we will have that. I hope we do.

“We need to test ourselves against higher-level opposition to see where we are at and we have had a good mixture of teams already.

“Dulwich will be quite a big step up, a couple of leagues above and two Kent derbies who play at step three.

"It is a good test for us and hopefully we’ll get some decent gates through the turnstiles.”

Davis is running with a moderately small squad this season, numbering 17. It’s low on numbers but hopefully high on quality.

With the holiday season kicking in, it’s been a juggling act to give the players the right amount of minutes.

“I think we have managed it quite well,” said Davis.

“We have had nice gaps between games where we have managed to work in training, done a lot of pattern, and hopefully we can bring that into these games.”

The Canterbury game was an opportunity for