If you reach 50 points it guarantees you safety, says Hythe Town joint-manager Tony Beckingham

HYTHE TOWN joint-manager Tony Beckingham says he is expecting to face a wounded animal when they travel to fellow strugglers Whitstable Town on Tuesday night.

Whitstable Town boss Simon Halsey tweeted “the worst experience in 20 years,” after his side were humiliated 8-0 at home by Walton Casuals – who scored seven goals during the second half – yesterday.

Hythe Town claimed a late equaliser through Craig Thompson’s second goal of the game and season in their 2-2 draw at East Grinstead Town yesterday in what was Matt Longhurst’s first game in charge of The Wasps.

The Cannons are sitting in the bottom four with 14 points from 15 games, seven points clear of East Grinstead, who have four games in hand, and Whitstable Town, who also have seven points from 15 league outings.

“Listen, what happened today is irrelevant to me to be honest with you,” said Beckingham.

“How often do you see a team have to bounce back or you expect a reaction from that today?

“Simon will be bitterly upset with the result but he will also want to put that right on Tuesday night against us, so we need to ignore the result, which we will do and we’ll treat it like we do every single game. The result today is irrelevant to Tuesday night.”

Hythe Town will be without striker Frankie Sawyer after he was stretchered off the pitch after picking up an ankle ligament injury within seconds of the start of yesterday’s game.

Beckingham is working alongside Clive Cook as joint-managers and although Cook has been away on a pre-planned holiday in Ibiza, the two get on fine.

Beckingham said: “It’s fine, absolutely fine. I’ve had experience of it before with Boylie (Steve O’Boyle), we had great success at Phoenix and also East Grinstead he was helping me out.

“It’s never a problem as long as it’s the right combination and if you can work with the right people it’s not an issue and it’s an issue if you’ve got two characters who want to have their own way then it can become an issue, but we’ve both different characters and at the moment it’s working absolutely fine.

“He’s a good lad Clive, we’ve both got our strengths and characters and they both kind of dovetail really.”

Beckingham knows what it will take to keep Hythe Town in the Ryman League.

“We want to try now to get consistency in our performances and once we do, I think hopefully it will be a steady climb away.

“To stay up it’s the same every year.  You’re looking at 50 points. If you look at it historically in the Ryman League, which I’ve done last year when we (East Grinstead Town) were struggling, I studied it. If you reach 50 points, it guarantees safety.”

Visit Hythe Town’s website: www.hythetownfc.co.uk

Whitstable Town  v  Hythe Town
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 20^th October 2015
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Belmont, Belmont Road, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1QP