The very least we’re looking for is to keep in the top five and be recognised as a top five side, says Faversham Town boss Ray Turner

FAVERSHAM TOWN manager Ray Turner says he is looking to improve his FA Cup record this season.

The Lilywhites came away from Hayes Lane with a 1-0 defeat to Cray Wanderers yesterday to slip down a couple of places to fourth in the Ryman League Division One South table.

They have collected two wins from their opening three games and are behind Carshalton Athletic, Corinthian-Casuals and Tooting & Mitcham United in the league table going into tomorrow’s home game against Herne Bay.

Sam Denly’s side beat Whyteleafe 2-1 at Winch’s Field yesterday and sit in 13^th place in the table having won one and drawn two of their leagues this term.

“It will be tough for us, they done well against us last year at our place,” said Turner.

“These games are difficult, it’s just picking the boys up and going again so quickly, which suggest there’s going to be some strange results on Monday, so it’s important we get a positive one and the very least stay towards the top end of the league.

“The boys have got used to that. We’ll have a little look at how the players have recovered.  I think Kieron Campbell came off worst yesterday so there’s not a lot of time to recover and we’ll get ready for Monday.”

The division will be a very hard one to win or to get into the play-offs this season for everybody, not just Faversham Town, who finished in fifth-place and beat Dorking Wanderers in the play-off semi-final before suffering a 3-0 defeat at Worthing in the final.

“I think in our league there’s going to be fine margins in all of the games this year and I think possibly it’s going to be as competitive as it’s ever been because you’ve got at least eight sides that have got genuine ambitions to reach the top five,” said Turner.

“For me to say today, we’re only going for top spot, I know where we are as a club. We’ve done great and we’ve over-achieved over the last few years but it’s important that we keep pushing and the top five we’re constantly in that race.

“The play-offs have been good to us. It’s easy to look at the two finals that we lost, equally many teams would swap with us over the last few years of the record that we’ve had at this level.

“The very least we’re looking for is to keep in the top five and be recognised as a top five side every week and to try to put as much pressure on these “bigger” sides in terms of their structure, their club, their support base.

“There’s an awful lot of clubs that have been playing at Ryman Premier and even above at times and they’ve got that background, so I just want to keep that momentum going within the club.

“We’ve got a great structure now, good young players are coming through. Momentum for us is to keep competing with the top sides.”

Faversham Town hold home advantage over Cray Wanderers in next Saturday’s FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie at Salters Lane.

If yesterday’s league game is anything to go by, their second meeting will be a cracker played between two very good sides.

“It’s one of the things on my wish list I suppose at Faversham, we’ve done an awful lot over a short period of time. We’ve been lucky enough to enjoy quite a degree of success in terms of getting into the play-offs, to cup finals last year.

“I suppose The FA Cup from my perspective and the club’s perspective is one box we haven’t ticked yet in terms of trying to push on and get to those latter qualifying rounds.

“History is not great in that competition and I think I’ve been managing the side twice in to the Second Qualifying Round, I’ve never got beyond that, so that’s an opportunity to take us into the Second Qualifying Round and maybe take one step and try to do something the clubs’ never done before.”

Visit Faversham Town’s website: www.favershamtownfc.co.uk

Faversham Town  v Herne Bay
Ryman League Division One South
Bank Holiday Monday 29^th August 2016
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Salters Lane, Faversham, Kent ME13 8ND