Tommy Warrilow suggested a lack of new faces at Faversham since he took charge should help dampen their reputation as a big-spending club.

Town have only added on-loan Ashford keeper Jacob Russell to their Southern Counties East Premier Division squad since Warrilow replaced Sammy Moore last month.

“We’re looking to try and bring a couple in,” admitted Warrilow. “I’ve tried to bring some bodies in - and I’ve been knocked back.

“We want to make sure we bring in the right characters for the changing room and for the club. We will be looking again this week.

“I believe they have changed the play-off rules this year, so you can’t just sign players for them.

“They have to have played a certain number of games for you that season. Even though that could have potentially been ideal for us, I’m in favour of that long-term.

“I’m hoping to bring one or two in - but I was hoping to bring one or two in last week. If it’s not meant to be, we’ll just crack on.

“Maybe it puts the myth to bed about the money we are supposedly spending. If we were spending that kind of money, they would have signed already!

“Most of it is about players not wanting to drop to this level. I cannot do anything about that. We will keep looking.”

Circumstances have presented opportunities for some of Faversham’s under-23s squad - managed by Rhys Leader, the son of vice-chairman Marc Leader - with George Cutting and Ephraim Adanemhen coming off the bench in last weekend’s 6-1 home win over Holmesdale.

“I speak regularly to Rhys, who is doing a great job,” said Warrilow, who also used youth-team player Jermain Kevill in last Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Deal.

“Some weeks, I say ‘We need a midfielder’ or ‘We need a striker’ and, sometimes, it’s just a body that we’re after. All the lads have done well when called up.

“Hopefully, it helps their performance with the under-23s. Especially coming on at Deal in front of 700-odd people and in games like that, it’s a good experience for them.

“If we didn’t have them, maybe the gap between the under-18s and the men’s team would have been too big.

“But we train together, which is another tick in the box.”

Top scorer Stefan Payne and in-form midfielder Sam Hasler were both at the double against Holmesdale, substitute Warren Mfula also finding the net - only to come off himself after taking a whack - alongside attacking midfielder Billy Bennett.

Warrilow, who also lost left-back Matt Parsons in the warm-up, said: “For us, it’s an important month.

“We go Saturday-to-Saturday which does us a massive favour because we have a lot of knocks and niggles. We managed to get a couple back on Saturday.

“Wozza (Mfula) took a knock on Saturday to his mouth - but he’s okay.

“I know everyone says it, but I genuinely don’t care about who we’re playing. We started the month in the right way on Saturday.

“It’s about not getting too high when you win and too low when you lose.”

The second-placed Lilywhites are at struggling Stansfeld in the league this Saturday.

Warrilow thinks their hosts will have added motivation, having been hammered 8-0 at Salters Lane in November.

He said: “I’m aware of the table. When I first took over, I looked at it - but I won’t be looking again until the end of February.

“We went to Rusthall when they were third-bottom and they were good (Town eventually winning 2-1).

“I don’t mean that in a patronising way - but they drew (0-0) with Glebe last weekend and that doesn’t surprise me.

“We just have to go into every game as though we are playing Manchester United.”