Next season’s Southern Counties East Premier Division will be as competitive as it has ever been, predicts Whitstable coach Craig Coles.

Marcel Nimani’s Oystermen, who came fifth in their first campaign back at Step 5, will hope to earn an Isthmian League return.

Also vying to go up will be Deal, though, while Faversham and Corinthian have been relegated into the league and Snodland and Lydd are set to come up from Division 1.

A play-off system will be introduced for the first time as well, which will allow a club who finish between second and fifth to earn promotion.

“The next year is going to be really competitive, probably the most competitive it’s been,” said Coles.

“You’ve got Erith & Belvedere that have gone up and you’ve got Faversham and Corinthian that are definitely to come down into the league. When you look at that, you know it’s going to be a tough one next year.

“But we’ll relish the opportunity to get the club back where it deserves to be. Hopefully, we can give something back to the fans with some silverware.”

Young midfielder Josh Oliver has committed to stay with Whitstable and Coles hopes others follow his lead.

He said: “We have got meetings planned with a lot of the boys. We spoke to a couple of them at the last game of the season. Hopefully, within the next week or two, we’ll have definites who we’ll have next season.

“But we’re planning ahead, as well, and trying to get meetings with other players to try and bring a few in, just to try and make sure we’re fighting for promotion for next season.

“Ultimately, we feel we owe it to the fans to deliver.”

Coles also says himself and Nimani are trying to give supporters of the Oystermen a team they want to come and see, rather than a team they feel obligated to follow.

He said: “When we came in, we wanted to build the club up from where it was. Performance-wise but fanbase-wise as well.

“We felt, prior to us coming in, supporters might have felt they had to go to the games. Whereas when we first came in, I certainly said I wanted to give fans the feeling that they wanted to turn up each week - not feel like they have to.

“Our last home game of the season against Phoenix, we had 750 fans there. We had more fans for our last home game of the season than the likes of Deal, Sheppey and clubs like that.

“The fanbase is there. Although we’ve ultimately come in for football reasons, it’s been just as important to get a community feel and a fanbase feel back to the club.”

Oliver was the big winner when Whitstable handed out their annual awards last Saturday.

He was named supporters’ player-of-the-year as well as picking up the golden boot - having netted 14 times in the campaign - and goal of the season.

Tom Mills was named players’ player-of-the-year with Jefferson Aibangbee taking the manager’s award. Young player-of-the-year went to George Sheminant and Will Thomas got the directors’ nomination for their player-of-the-year. The special contribution award went to Ada Hubbard.