Hollands & Blair are moving on quickly from a heavy loss against the league leaders.

Blair were thumped 4-0 at home by Faversham Town last Saturday but visit Tunbridge Wells, who sit just above them in the table albeit with games in hand, this weekend.

Darren Blackburn’s side face Faversham again on February 1 before hosting bottom side Lydd.

“That Faversham game won’t be what defines our season,” said Blackburn.

“We’ve got them again in a couple of weeks but there’s bigger games either side of that in Tunbridge Wells and Lydd coming up. They’re the ones we’ve got to try and take some points from.

“If we take points from those games, even if it’s a point, it’s two points the other team can’t get as well. It just keeps our noses in front.

“The mission hasn’t changed, it’s still to finish third from bottom. That’s the mission. Anything better than that would be a massive bonus.”

Blair conceded two goals from the penalty spot against Faversham and had a man sent off. That loss came days after a thrilling late comeback win over Whitstable Town.

Blackburn said: “We had a couple of knocks from the Tuesday night. Some players we had to leave out, Tom Walmsley and Jordan Wells sat on the bench and were never going to be used, really, unless we got serious injuries.

“We did well for 15 minutes, until the first goal. We’d asked a few questions. They’ve just got an abundance of talent so it’s difficult to deal with all of their options at the same time.

“It was really disappointing because our young goalkeeper Jack Reeves, who is a great prospect, came rushing out and pushed Tashi-Jay Kwayie. He just needed to put the brakes on.

“I’ve spoken to him and he was gutted but he’ll learn from it.”

Kwayie buried the penalty and also scored in the second half after goals by Ben Gorham and Danny Parish had given Town a 3-0 half-time lead.

Reeves helped ensure Faversham only scored four against 10 men after Matt Gething was sent off for retaliating to what Blackburn felt was a kick from Gorham, which led to the second penalty.

Blair were considering an appeal over the red card.

“It had been a difficult team talk at 3-0 down,” said Blackburn.

“We made some subs, changed formation. I told them we just had to keep going and then we have a man sent off five minutes into the second half.

“Both players put their heads together. No players went to ground and there was no injury. I failed to see how it constituted a headbutt, if I’m honest.

“I think we need to look at the definition of what a headbutt is if we’re going to start citing that.

“What the video does show is the Faversham player swiping at our player first.”

Gething will face a ban if the red card stands, not ideal news for Blair as they head into the Tunbridge Wells game.

Blackburn’s made plenty of changes to personnel since taking charge and they’ve currently got some daylight between themselves and the bottom two.

He said: “The main thing was to try and turn the dressing room into a positive place to be around, get lads in with the right attitude that want to be there.

“The strategy was to bring in some older, more experienced players, but also ones that have the right attitude, the right hunger for it, the right fitness levels, and make the changing room hopefully a good place to be around.

“It feels like we’ve got a good bunch now. A real mixed bag of varied ages and different experiences, from the youngest sort of 18-ish up to the older players in their early to mid-30s now. We’ve got a much more balanced range.

“I feel like the squad isn’t one that should be in the bottom three or four. Certainly not.”