Whitstable Town coach Craig Coles looks ahead to home Southern Counties East Premier Division derby with leaders Faversham Town at The Belmont

Craig Coles understands just how important Whitstable’s derby against frontrunners Faversham will be for the fans - and thinks the players do, too.

Both clubs are eyeing promotion from the Southern Counties East Premier Division this season with only four points separating them - although Marcel Nimani’s Oystermen have suffered back-to-back losses ahead of Saturday’s game.

Faversham won 2-1 when the teams met at Salters Lane in August despite winger Josh Williams’ goal.

While the ambitious Lilywhites have since signed hitman Stefan Payne, alongside midfielders Billy Bingham and Nathan Wood, Coles thinks - bar lacking a clinical edge - there wasn’t too much wrong with their display on that occasion.

Nimani’s No.2 Coles, a former Whitstable youth-team player, said: “It’s a big opportunity for us to right the wrongs of games in previous weeks.

“For me, the boys know how big the game is on Saturday - not just from a football perspective – but for the fanbase as well.

“When we went to their place and we were walking around after the game, we must have had about 200 there.

“To be fair, Faversham will probably bring a few. We just want to give something back to the fans.

“I think the best thing for us is to not try changing too much from when we played them last time. They have brought in Stefan Payne, Billy Bingham and Nathan Wood.

“But in terms of how we go about things, that shouldn’t change just because of what they have brought in.

“We had some success against them last time. The only thing that let us down was not putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Faversham are the division’s top scorers with 57 but the third-placed Oystermen’s goals-for column is only bettered by two other SCEFL sides.

That looks like a recipe