Whitstable Town player-manager Jamie Coyle on the importance fans can have in season run-in as club-record crowd watch comeback 3-2 FA Vase quarter-final home win

Jamie Coyle wants to see the majority of Whitstable’s club-record crowd keep getting behind his side during their frantic season run-in.

A massive attendance of 2,656 at The Belmont - the biggest in the club’s history - saw the Oystermen come from 2-0 down to beat Whitchurch Alport 3-2 in the FA Vase quarter-final tie as their best-ever run continued last weekend.

Southern Counties East League Premier Division Whitstable have the second-best average attendance in the division.

But with matches to catch up on in their play-off push and a Kent Senior Trophy final next month, as well as a two-legged FA Vase semi-final to look forward to, Whitstable’s fans will be needed now more than ever, with silverware on the line.

Player-manager Coyle said: “That’s the biggest hope from Saturday.

“We wanted to give a good account of ourselves because we’ve not seen a crowd like it here.

“We want to keep some of the people that have come through the gates, who haven’t come before or don’t come regularly. They have seen a team out there that’s giving everything for the football club.

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“There was a really exciting finish to the game. Hopefully, they have kind of got that buzz.

“Maybe, they’ll even be back for the league games that we have got coming up, but definitely for the semi-final.”

Whitstable are potentially just 180 minutes from a Wembley final as they start planning to face Hartpury University - who have already knocked out the Oystermen’s divisional rivals VCD and Erith & Belvedere - in the final four.

The first leg will be held at The Belmont on Saturday, March 29, before the second leg in Gloucestershire