Corinthian-Casuals travel to fellow promotion hopefuls Hythe Town this Saturday aiming to cement a place in the Bostik South play-offs.

Last Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Herne Bay, coupled with Walton Casuals’ 5-2 win against Cray Wanderers, meant that James Bracken’s side dropped out of the promotion or play-off places for the first time since September.

However, Casuals recovered to thump Guernsey 5-0 on Tuesday night in a ‘must-win’ match to put them fifth.

Two goals from Gabriel Odunaike, one each from Max Oldham, Jamie Byatt and an own goal did the damage.

Against Herne Bay, the home side found the woodwork on no less than three occasions in the first half, all hitting the post.

However, it was the Kent outfit who took the lead in the second half. From a whipped in free kick, errors in judgement allowed Connor Wilkins to bundle in at the back post.

To make matters worse, Bay doubled their lead just after the hour mark when Sam McCallum found space to race through and poke past the oncoming Gareth Williams in goal.

Harry Ottaway gave the home side hope on 83 minutes when he beat Hunter to the touch and prodded home to reduce the deficit.

Pushing forward naturally created holes at the back and so it was no surprise when a break down in play allowed Jake Embery all the time in the world to slam home the deciding third goal in stoppage time.

Now they visit the league’s in-form side, Hythe, who’ve only lost once in their last fifteen matches. Corinth will need a point to guarantee a playoff spot.

“There’s no point in hiding it and saying we’re doing alright. We’re not doing alright,” said Manager James Bracken following the Herne Bay game.

“I said to the lads before the game today that we’ve lost three league games out of our last 21. It’s not a bad record by any stretch but the last five, we haven’t picked up a win.

“There are circumstances in every game where I’d say we haven’t taken our chances. We’ve had plenty and in crucial moments of the game.

“That sets the tone for the whole match. If we’d got one or two goals in-front today,

"I’d have no doubt that we’d have seen it out. We didn’t. We’ve ended up having to push forward and go for it which resulted in the third goal. When we came back to 2-1, I felt we would go on and get at least a draw.

“I told them that this was a must win game. But this is football; we had chances, we hit the post three times, balls on the goalline that should be put away… a lot of opportunities to take charge of this game. It’s not fallen for us. Again, the first two goals we conceded are really poor from our point of view.

“The maximum we’ll need on the last day is a point. That’s very doable. We beat them (Hythe) last season 5-0 and this season 3-1 at theirs (in the FA Cup). 

“We must get in a positive frame of mind, be ready and get the team right.”