Faversham Town manager Ray Turner believes having to play Crawley Down Gatwick on Saturday is definitely a case of “bad timing.”

After Monday night’s encouraging goalless draw at Ryman League, Division 1 South promotion chasers Hastings United, a return trip to Sussex to take on second-from-bottom Crawley Down looks a significantly easier assignment.

But Turner warned: “They signed 11 new players in the last week before the transfer deadline and (the highly experienced) John Maggs has also gone back there as manager.

“They won 2-1 at Walton & Hersham on Tuesday and so it’s all lining up to be one of those games where you are on a hiding to nothing.

“If we had played them 10 days ago I’m sure we would have gone there and won but they’ve got a new manager and a totally new side and are probably thinking they can get themselves out of it.

“We’ll have to adapt to some different conditions down there.

"Hastings was a fantastic surface to play on and we were able to play some nice stuff but Crawley won’t be such a good surface.

"They will also have a totally different mentality in terms of fighting for every point to stay up.”

Faversham manager will be without experienced pair miidfielder Darren Marsden is unavailable because of personal reasons while striker Brendon Cass starts a three-match suspension.