Manager Tommy Warrilow has called for calm following four departures at Ashford this week.

Midfielders Toby Ajala, Mikey Dalton and Jarred Trespaderne have left Homelands, along with defender Mamadou Diallo.

It’s no more than unfortunate timing, with Ajala and Trespaderne accepting offers from Faversham and Lydd respectively, while Dalton and Diallo asked to leave, although the club still hold their registrations.

Warrilow said: “When four go at the same time it sends bad vibes but it’s far from that.

“It creates ripples on the circuit and people put two and two together and make 50. Everyone jumps to the wrong conclusion.

“There’s no unrest in the changing room, no bad atmosphere, no budget cuts, no infighting, nothing like that.

“I know it doesn’t look good but there’s no need to panic.

“We need to put our big-boy pants on and get on with it.

“Jarred got offered a very good job and as part of the deal he plays for the chairman’s football club, which is Lydd.

“Faversham came in for Toby Ajala last week. We made them wait the seven days, because he’s been good for us, but I knew he would go because everyone knows what’s happening down there. I’ve no problem with that.

“Mamadou surprised me a bit because he’d been ever-present in the side until Boxing Day.

“He went away to Portugal for seven or 10 days, then came back and rang me to say he was thinking he might move on and also he had loads of work on.

“I said to him, ‘That’s fine, don’t worry, do your work and then you can come back’. We’ll see with that one but we still hold his registration, as we do for Mikey Dalton.

“With Dalts, he said since he’s come back from Australia he’s not been enjoying his football, he’s been struggling to settle and feels a little unmotivated.

“He’s got to find that motivation again and if that means just playing with his mates, that’s fine.

“That’s what happened with the four of them. You can’t take anything personally.”

Warrilow is looking for replacements before Ashford’s Kent derby at Sevenoaks this Saturday (3pm).

The Nuts & Bolts were struggling to fill the bench as things stood but the manager is unfazed.

“We’ve still got 14 players,” said Warrilow, who brought striker George Nikaj back on loan from Dover at the end of last week.

“You can only use three subs anyway so it wouldn’t worry me if we went to Sevenoaks with 14.

“I’m shaking the tree to see what’s out there but I’m not going to bring in people for the sake of it.

“We’re light in midfield but we need the right players and the right characters for what we’re trying to do.”

There were dramatic scenes at Homelands last weekend, with Gil Carvalho scoring a 97th-minute winner as Ashford beat Burgess Hill 3-2.

Danny Parish scored for the fourth game running but the Nuts & Bolts trailed 2-1 with 10 minutes left.

Gary Lockyer levelled before Carvalho’s last-gasp strike kept the hosts in the Isthmian South East play-off spots.

“We were knocking on the door,” said Warrilow. “We could have felt sorry for ourselves but we kept going.

“The goalie was unbelievable, there were shots going in, they were putting bodies in the way and trying to run down the clock.

“The lads showed brilliant character to go all the way and get the winner in the last knockings. That’s why you never leave a match early.”

Nikaj scored nine goals in 14 appearances during his first loan spell at Ashford earlier this season.

The deal to bring him back - initially on a one-month deal - was set up before Dover boss Andy Hessenthaler left Crabble for a head of recruitment role at Gillingham.

“I’d been speaking to Hess before Christmas,” said Warrilow. “It was a case of getting the Boxing Day and New Year games out of the way.

“Mike Sandmann (Whites caretaker boss) was aware of it and we were able to get it over the line.

“We have to remember he’s Dover’s player and if they want him back after the month we’ll have to accept that, but all the time he’s here he’ll be playing football.

“It’s good for George, good for us and good for Dover. He settled back in like he’d never been away.”