Tommy Osborne believes Ashford United are entering a key phase of the season.

The Nuts & Bolts sit ninth in Isthmian South East with Christmas approaching and it’s a time of year that can shape a team’s campaign one way or another.

Ashford enjoyed a run of one defeat in seven matches before losing successive games against Cray Valley and Lancing, blowing a 3-1 lead in the latter.

They’re keen to start another run, following postponements at Broadbridge Heath and Horndean over the past week, and visit Phoenix Sports this Saturday (3pm).

Assistant boss Osborne said: “It’s difficult because this season the league is as competitive as it’s been for a long time.

“Where previously you might have had four or five clubs with good budgets going for promotion, I genuinely think this season you’ve got eight or nine.

“Over the next four or five weeks, you’ll probably be able to gauge where you’re at .

“This Christmas period and the games we’ve got in January can set up what season you’re going to have.

“We had that spell where we lost one in seven before the Cray game and we felt we were starting to make progress.

“We lost to Cray, who are a fantastic team, and then we had that disappointing result against Lancing after being 3-1 up and losing 4-3.

“We try and concentrate on that form we had in that run of one defeat in seven and see if the players can keep that consistency.

“Take that poor 45 minutes against Lancing out of the equation and there have been some real positive points.

“It’s just trying to drill that mentality into the lads that we can go on another little run.”

Osborne was in the crowd as Phoenix beat Sevenoaks 3-2 last weekend to move out of the relegation zone.

They lost 9-1 and 4-0 to Ramsgate and Hythe respectively last month but have put those defeats behind them.

And Ashford know they’re in for a game having lost the home fixture 5-3 after blowing a 3-2 lead in the closing stages.

“We were our own worst enemy in that game,” said Osborne.

“We got ourselves in a fantastic position, going 3-2 up with 13 minutes left.

“The goals we conceded were really disappointing from our point of view and we lost the game - deservedly so.

“We’ve got to try and make amends on Saturday.

“It’s never nice conceding five goals.

“I went to watch Phoenix against Sevenoaks and they did really well.

“They got their win and I thought it was deserved to be honest with you.

“That’s a fantastic win for them - they’ll take a lot of confidence from that - and it’s something we’ve got to go there and deal with because if we don’t it will be an extremely difficult game.

“You have to give them credit because if you get a couple of heavy defeats, you’ve got to show character to come back from that and they have.

“On Saturday, the togetherness was there to be seen and they had a couple of players who played really well.

“So I’ve no doubt when we go there it’s going to be a difficult game and if we don’t play well, we’ll struggle to get the points.”