It's great that people's expectations are so high, says Faversham Town boss Ray Turner

FAVERSHAM TOWN boss Ray Turner says he is looking forward to some make-or-break games towards the end of the season.



The Lilywhites lost their eight-match unbeaten run when they went down to a surprise 4-1 home defeat to third-from-bottom side Whitstable Town at Salters Lane on Saturday, a result that saw them slip down to third-place in the Ryman League Division One South table.

They are eight points behind leaders Maidstone United and have eight more games to play, including the likes of Hythe Town (away, 30 March), Sittingbourne (home, 1 April), Dulwich Hamlet (home, 6 April) and Maidstone United (away, 13 April).

Faversham Town travel to Crawley Down Gatwick this coming Saturday. John Maggs’ side are in eighth-place in the league, three points behind fifth-placed Leatherhead.

”We’ve got to go there, we just have to be positive,” said Turner.

”There’s eight games and there’s eight really big games.  There’s some great fixtures to look forward to and we’re playing teams all around us in March and in particular April.

”I think once we play Crawley Down Gatwick, particularly the run from the end of March when we go to Hythe, it’s a great run. I’m looking forward to it.  We’ve got nothing to lose really. 

”It’s great that people’s expectations are so high and it’s great that we’ve raised these levels of expectations.  Let’s hope we can maintain where we are and get some great results.

”Those games will be big crowds and there’s plenty of interest and we’re going to have a say in the title whichever way you look at it because we’re playing all the teams around us so I think it’s great for the club to be involved in those games towards the end of the season.”

Turner wants to rebuild his eight-match unbeaten run to secure a play-off place at the end of their best season for many years.

”We had a very similar situation when we came out of October with eight games unbeaten in the month and then we lost by four to Maidstone at the beginning of November.  We’ve done a very similar thing here.  We’ve gone eight games unbeaten and getting done by four on Saturday.

”All I can say if it’s one defeat in nine then that’s not the worst run off form and any team up there will take that and we just need to try to go back on a run and be hard to beat again.

”We weren’t hard enough in terms of being stubborn enough on Saturday. We were easily beaten.”

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Crawley Down Gatwick  v  Faversham Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 16^th March 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Haven Sportsfield (Haven Centre), Hophurst Lane, Crawley Down, West Sussex RH10 4LJ