Building up Ashford’s fragile confidence is the next target for manager Jason Whitmore.

The Nuts & Bolts, second-bottom in Bostik South, lost 2-1 at home to Horsham on Saturday and are six points adrift of the sides above them.

Whitmore still believes they can pick up points over Christmas and New Year but admits belief is lacking after a run of one win in 16 games.

He said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t get anything out of the game. They lost it in the first half, they were a little bit nervous at the back.

“A couple of senior players were nervous but in the second half it was all us. I was impressed with the striker and we’ve just got to find the right balance and shape and formation.

“I didn’t think the formation worked. A couple of players didn’t do their jobs correctly and that’s what gave Horsham their chance. Getting the team to gel is the next stage for us.

“We’ve got some good attacking players but we’ve got to get them to gel as one team.”

Ashford are now halfway through a season which saw Whitmore replace Danny Lye back in August.

He said: “It’s been a tough transition, a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

“It’s more than what happens on the pitch on a Saturday, it’s getting the right players, the right balance, the right infrastructure, the environment to be changed and that’s been the hardest part, getting people to believe and understand and buy into that.

“At the moment I’m happy with what we’ve got, I now want to see consistency with the team. Two players who have come in have got to step up and start producing.”

Ashford travel to VCD Athletic on Saturday before hosting Sittingbourne on Boxing Day (1pm).

Whitmore said: “We can pick points up and start getting ourselves into a position where we’re going into games with belief.

“I need to get that consistency where we go into a game and if we do go behind, it’s not ‘that’s it, we’re going to lose,’ it’s more about ‘we’re going to score two’. That’s the next stage in this transition. We’ve got to take away the nervousness.”

Centre-half Pat Kingwell has been told he can resume training in January after a scan on his head injury came back clear.