Josh Vincent insists Folkestone’s mental toughness makes them genuine play-off contenders in Bostik Premier.

The 27-year-old has established himself as a quality player this season as Invicta have taken the division by storm.

Neil Cugley’s side are the surprise package of 2017-18 and while many expect them to come off the pace between now and April, the defender says they’re made of sterner stuff these days.

He said: “We’ve got a different attitude this season. Last season, if we went 1-0 down, we’d self-destruct and lose our heads, end up losing 3-0.

“But now we stay quite calm and we’ve won a lot of games 3-1. We take it in our stride and we’ve got that never-say-die attitude.

“There’s no pressure on us to get the play-offs. Cugs isn’t putting any pressure on us but the lads want to stay in that play-off spot and I think we can.

“I know we’ve got a hard run of games with Billericay twice, Dulwich again, Hendon and Margate but we hit our potential when we play the bigger teams.

“Everyone’s expecting us to drop off but it’s mid-January and we’re still up there. We definitely deserve to be spoken about as play-off contenders.

“I always like being an underdog, I like to prove people wrong. Just below us Margate and Leatherhead are on a good run and at this level, that’s all you need, to go on a good run, a couple of months and you’re in the play-offs.

“I think we’re good enough to keep one of those spots.”

Read the full interview in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.