Ashford boss Steve Lovell is in fearless mood ahead of their Ryman League Division 1 South game with in-form Horsham YMCA on Saturday.

Lovell’s men boosted their league survival hopes after recording their first win in four months – and only their third of the season – at Dulwich Hamlet over weekend.

Horsham travel to Homelands unbeaten in nine with few problems scoring goals. Recent wins over Eastbourne Town (9-0), Leatherhead (6-2) and Corinthian Casuals (4-0) mark them out as a team to be feared.

Lovell, though, said: "It was great to get the win on Saturday and the boys can’t wait until the next game now.

"We’ll be heading into the game in buoyant mood. They are the in-form team and moved up the table recently but we had a good game up there, just losing 2-1.

"In the last four or five games we’ve been playing quite well. We had three successive draws and should have won all of those had it not been for a couple of sending-offs and a few mistakes.

"The confidence had been there, it was just the belief. We had been conceding silly goals following mistakes and the main things were that we got a win and a clean sheet and after having four or five players back, it’s made the difference."

Nicky Smith starts a four-game ban at the weekend but defenders Craig Cloke, Lee Hockey and Toby Ashmore all return and will give competition to a defence that on Saturday achieved a second clean sheet of the season.