Porter returns to boss rivals

Out of the game since leaving Reachfields in May 2014 after five years at the helm, Porter was named on Wednesday as the successor to Ian Cox at The Belmont.

Club development manager Colin Patching had been set to take charge of first team affairs at Walton Casuals on Wednesday night before the fixture was postponed and Porter's arrival was confirmed.

Porter, who has been appointed until the end of the season and tasked with getting as many points as possible in a late bid to save the club's Ryman status, guided The Cannons from the Kent League to the top half of Ryman South as well as leading them on a memorable FA Cup run to meet Hereford in the First Round proper in 2010.

Whitstable Town chairman Adam Lopez-Lightowler said: "As mentioned previously, we have a long-term development plan that we are implementing but our current objective is to get as many points on the board as we can.

"All the team and members are supportive of this decision for the remaining games of the season and again ask that our supporters join us to do the same."

A 4-0 defeat at home to Faversham at the end of last month brought Cox's three month reign to an end.

Patching, Town's U21s manager as well as their newly appointed club development manager, stepped up last week with coach Bob Reardon after Cox stood down having overseen 10 ten defeats in his 13 games at the helm.

The former Gillingham and Trinidad & Tobago World Cup defender arrived in November as part of joint management team with Wayne Wilson. After Wilson left in February on Valentines Day, Cox went just one game into the new regime of chairman Lopez-Lightowler and his consortium.

A director of Medway-based construction firm Merit Building Services where he is a colleague of new club vice-chairman and former Town scout Keith Perkins, Lopez-Lightowler succeeded former Whitstable Town chairman Gary Johnson.

Image courtesy of www.hythetownfc.co.uk

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