Whitstable Town manager Jamie Coyle on fit-again forward Nathan Jeche’s late winner in 1-0 victory at Phoenix Sports and FA Vase home game against Eastbourne United

Nathan Jeche was Whitstable’s weekend matchwinner - and boss Jamie Coyle admits the forward will have a massive role to play this season.

The former Maidstone and QPR player bagged his first goal this term after a lengthy injury lay-off in the 88th minute as the Oystermen edged to a 1-0 victory at Phoenix Sports in the Southern Counties East League Premier Division.

There’s still plenty of work for Jeche to do but Coyle was thrilled to see the 20-year-old make a decisive impact, firing in midfielder Bradley Schafer’s left-wing cross after he had seen an earlier effort disallowed.

“He has been working really hard behind the scenes,” said Coyle. “We have tried to build up his minutes with his physio.

“He’s far from being completely match fit but he can massively have an impact off the bench.

“It will be a massive boost when he’s fully fit. As he showed on Saturday, he does have an eye for goal.

“He scored another goal that the linesman called as offside but, looking back at the VEO (highlights), it was tight. We’re going to need him between now and the end of this season.

“But his chance-to-goal ratio has been excellent since he has been at the football club.”

It looked like Whitstable would have to settle for a point until home substitute Lyla Della-Verde was red-carded and, minutes later, Jeche made their advantage count.

“It was a tough game,” reflected Coyle. “I was impressed with them - as I expected to be - and felt they were really well-organised.

“Although we had some good counter attacks, our final ball really let us down. We struggled to capitalise on our counter-attacks and our end product was lacking a little bit.

“I think everyone was frustrated at half-time. But we said ‘It’s still 0-0 against a decent side