Gary Alexander believes that having no game this weekend could work in Ashford United’s favour.

Ashford have no match as it is FA Cup weekend and Alexander’s team were knocked out in the preliminary round.

It gives his players extra time to prepare for their next two games, against Cray Wanderers in Bostik South East (September 15) and then Folkestone Invicta in the first round of the Velocity Trophy (September 18).

Manager Alexander said: “We will be training on the Saturday. We had a pre-season but a week off will help us instil a bit more fitness. We will have a team building session this weekend, which will work in our favour.

“We have a couple of tough fixtures coming up next week against the title favourites Cray and then against Folkestone.”

Ashford lost their first league match of the season when they were beaten 1-0 at Whitstable Town on Saturday. Tom Walmsley scored six minutes from time to end Ashford’s 100% league record.

Alexander said: “It was frustrating. It was never going to be easy against Whitstable.

“They have a certain way of playing and that’s what they do and you just have to deal with that. It was not that bad a performance.

“You have to give credit to Whitstable for getting the three points.We have won three out of our four games and some teams don’t have any points on the board yet. It is all about how we react.

“We lacked a little bit of quality in the final third and we will have to work on that. We dominated the game, there’s no doubt about that.

“We have to learn from this. It was pretty similar to the Horsham game where we had long spells of possession and just lacked that cutting edge.

“If we do not take our chances, things like that can happen.”