by Alex Hoad

Faversham boss Ray Turner expects wounded Whitstable to start like "a pack of mad dogs" in Saturday’s derby clash at Salters Lane.

The Lilywhites are flying high – on a run of one defeat in 13 games in Ryman League Division 1 South – while Whitstable are in the bottom three with one point from five games, a run during which they have scored twice and conceded 17 goals.

Turner (pictured) said: "The derbies recently have been unbelievable. The formbook completely goes out of the window. I’m sure Whitstable will come at us like mad dogs from the start. It’s not always good to play teams after they’ve had a big defeat.

"We need to learn from the Herne Bay game last month when they came out like lunatics. We have to be prepared for that and then gradually impose our style on the game. We weren’t able to do that against Bay and were a bit disappointed with a point.

"Hopefully it will be a big crowd and fans of both teams come out in force. We’ll be going for the points this time."

Despite moving within five points of leaders Maidstone on Tuesday night, with nine games remaining, Turner says he had never felt like the Lilywhites were in the title race.

He said: "We have never really been all that close. Even now, we’re second, but Maidstone are ticking along nicely and (third-placed) Dulwich have all those games in hand."

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