James Collins has warned his Faversham players they must become more consistent if they are to challenge for an Isthmian South East play-off spot.

The Lilywhites host Cray Valley PM this weekend, as Faversham look to respond from their derby loss at Sittingbourne last time out after an 11-day break.

Faversham had won their opening two league fixtures before they suffered defeat to the Brickies but they also have already been knocked out of the FA Cup by Chipstead this term.

After the Cray Valley crash, they visit Ramsgate on Tuesday and host East Grinstead next weekend.

Town manager Collins, an ex-Cray Valley boss, is hoping his side can string a run of positive results together from this Saturday.

He said: "Look, I think everybody aims high at the beginning of the season but we have got to take one game at a time.

"We know, on our day, we are a match for anyone. But if we are to start talking about reaching the play-offs, we need to find some consistency in our game.

"Yes, we nearly made it three from three in the league. But as it stands, if you include the FA Cup game, we have won two and lost two.

"So we are searching for consistency but it is something that comes over time. It is a very strange time with Covid. The players are still finding their feet but we have started okay.

"But I fully expect us to find some sort of rhythm as we go along."

In preparation for the encounter at Salters Lane, Collins watched the Millers' last game, a 1-0 success over Corinthian, and was impressed with what he saw.

He admitted: "It is going to be very tough. I went and watched them play against Corinthian, and I think they are an excellent side.

"I think both Kev Watson (manager) and Kev James (first-team coach) have done an unbelievable job there. It has got them a lot of success in recent years and they have got a really good side.

"I really enjoyed watching them against Corinthian so it is going to be tough for us. But we will work on how best to get a result and go from there."

Faversham haven't been beaten at home in the league since February 2020, although two successive seasons have been affected by the coronavirus health crisis and they did lose to Haringey Borough in the FA Trophy last October.

Collins said: "I’d love to get a crowd of more than 200 for every game. We need to make the ground a little bit of a fortress.

"We haven’t lost there for a little while.

"Hopefully the supporters will turn out in their numbers and we can start hitting that target."

Collins says Town had no fresh injury concerns, ahead of training last night (Thursday).

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