Lordswood started their campaign with a bang by coming from a goal down to beat much-fancied Glebe.
REPORT AND INTERVIEW COURTESY OF MEDWAY MESSENGER - Mon 5th August
The visitors are tipped to challenge for the Southern Counties East League Premier Division title and took the lead after only seven minutes on Saturday when Scott Kinch bundled home a free-kick.
But new-look Lords, with Darren Anslow taking charge of his first game, hit back impressively and levelled through Marlon Patterson's 35th minute penalty.
A 30-yard screamer from debutant Jamie Taylor gave Lords a 2-1 lead a minute before half-time.
And victory was complete when substitute Luke Medley's first time half-volley flew past goalkeeper Nick Blue with three minutes left.
Anslow said: "Glebe have been touted as being in that group of three or four at the top, so it's a positive start.
"We're in a good position in that nothing's really expected of us, which means we can play our game, concentrate on what we've got to do and not focus on everybody else.
"It's not disrespectful. I love it. Let's hope it stays that way.
"We've all been around football long enough to know it tends to be the sides with more resources who do well.
"We just have to work that bit harder on what we're going to do.
"We're not getting carried away - it's only one game - but we feel we've got a half-decent squad."
Lordswood showed character to fight back from the early goal, although they've been used to starting slowly in pre-season.
Anslow said: "It's been taking us 10 minutes to find our way into games, which is the next thing we need to address.
"It was like that in every pre-season game where we've not implemented our game and been sucked into the other team's game but then we find our feet.
"We had a very young side out on Saturday.
"It would have been easy to collapse after going behind against a strong side but we showed great character and played very well."