Caretakers want posts permanently

Matt Wyatt and Nick Davis have thrown their hats into the ring to take over as the permanent managers of Ryman South Sittingbourne, writes Tony Rickson.

Brickies coach Wyatt and skipper Davis stepped up as caretakers last week following the exits of Jim and Danny Ward and made an impressive start on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Worthing, only the Brickies' second league win of the season.

Wyatt, 40, is a schoolteacher with full coaching qualifications who was at Chelsea for five years as a youngster. He's known central defender Davis, 31, for more than 20 years and believes they are in a great position to make a case to take the job permanently.

Wyatt said: "Sittingbourne is a great club with an excellent set of players and good supporters. Our ambition is to put together a good enough run of results to ensure we get the management job.

"After Saturday, there’s still 39 league matches to play this season, as well as four cup competitions we’re involved in. With the squad of players we’ve inherited from Jim and Danny there’s so much to play for.

"Football is a results business and we know we’ll be judged on what happens on the pitch. I’m grateful to Jim and Danny for bringing me to the club and I have no problem whatsoever with them. Things happen, you move on, that’s what happens in football.

"We’ll be playing Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday for a while yet so we need a strong squad of players and we’re already looking to improve in that respect. Up front we have Ryan Golding and Joe Taylor, who are great players with proven goalscoring ability, as well as Tom Loynes, who has been one of the best players for the team this season. But we also have Connor Coyne and Hicham Akhazzan, so there’s five players competing for three places straightaway."