Kennington manager Dan Scorer has taken heart from recent performances.

Ton remain bottom of Southern Counties East but there have been plenty of encouraging signs on the pitch.

A 1-0 win over high-flying Whitstable in the Challenge Cup on Tuesday night highlighted their improvement - Charlie Owen’s early goal sealing a quarter-final place.

The challenge is on to land the league wins they need to move up the table.

Scorer, whose side host Tunbridge Wells at Homelands tomorrow (3pm), said: “It’s been an interesting three or four weeks.

“We’ve shown quite substantial progress really in the sense of us understanding as a group the situation we’re in and I think everyone’s buying into what we need to do to get ourselves away from trouble.

“We have said - and I’ve highlighted this - we’re not going to see immediate results but if we continue to put in the work, hopefully we’ll reap the rewards later on in the season.

“There have been real signs of encouragement.

“The only disappointing thing on Tuesday was the fact it wasn’t a league game because it was a performance that, if we’d carried that out in the league, I think we’d have come away very pleased and found our rewards against most sides.

“We’re now in the quarter-finals of a competition we did well in last year and we’ve spoken about how that can keep your season alive, so that’s something to look forward to in the new year as well.”

Top scorer Ryan Philpott’s return from injury has boosted Kennington, moving on to 13 goals from 15 starts after finding the net in a 1-1 draw against Rusthall last weekend.

And long-serving Adam Phillips returned at centre-half against Whitstable after missing the previous eight games.

Scorer said: “We’ve made three or four really useful additions to the squad in the last month, all that have added a lot of quality and fantastic energy and intensity which has enabled us to kick on with the way we want to play.

“We’re still picking up one or two niggly injuries, which is frustrating, but we’ve now got Ryan Philpott back, our top goalscorer, and he’s made an immediate impact.

“Adam Phillips, who’s made nearly 300 appearances for the club, he came back in against Whitstable and made such a difference to our backline, just the composure and quality he offers us.”

Philpott gave Ton the lead against Rusthall but the visitors levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Neither side took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half but the draw edged Ton closer to second-bottom Stansfeld.

Scorer said: “We have to hold that point in great value because it’s brought us within three points of Stansfeld with two games in hand.

“Those games don’t mean anything until you’ve played them and put points on the board but it’s certainly put us in a stronger position than if we hadn’t got that point. Every point’s important.

“There’ll still be games I’m sure that we’ll come away from feeling we should have got more but if we can continue to put in the performances we have then I’m very confident we can soon see ourselves moving up the table.”