Whitstable Town coach Craig Coles sees first-team chances for youth-team prospects Manny Cuttress and Alfie Wood in their season run-in

Two youth-team prospects could be handed more first-team opportunities in Whitstable’s season run-in.

The sixth-placed Oystermen remain just outside the top five in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

They beat Rusthall 3-1 at home last Saturday through goals from midfielder Mikey Dalton, striker Emmanuel Oloyede and substitute James Jeffrey but were edged out 3-2 by leaders Deal on Easter Monday.

With a three-game ban for Jeffrey around the corner and defenders George Sheminant,
Ollie Gray and skipper Tom Mills sustaining knocks, manager Marcel Nimani has some
selection headaches ahead of this Saturday’s home match against Sutton Athletic.

But attacker Manny Cuttress was a late substitute against Deal and fellow youth-team
product Alfie Wood has also caught the eye.

Nimani’s No.2 Craig Coles said: “Manny Cuttress has been fantastic. He has been in training recently and scoring a lot of goals for the under-23s.

“We have got another young lad called Alfie Wood. No doubt, he will be in and around the squad.

“He’s another really good player from the system that the club has got.

“There’s players in there that have trained and played with us - they’re just two of them.

“The boys love them. Both have fantastic attitudes for boys that are so young.

“Hopefully, there will be an opportunity for one - or both - to show what they have got in the last four games of the season.”

Coles was optimistic some of their more experienced players would be fit to play some part this weekend, though.

He said: “We have got quite a few with knocks and stuff. It’s tough.

“We won’t know better until probably Thursday.

“Hopefully, there’s a couple of boys that have got a chance for Saturday.”

Whitstable still are hopeful of a top-five