Ray Turner feels Faversham can play without pressure between now and the end of the season.

And Turner says his side are already showing the benefits of that situation by recording 3-1 victories in their last two matches.

Those wins followed two successive defeats which looked to have spelt the end of the Lilywhites’ play-off hopes and Turner said: “In terms of pressure, it’s been lifted a little bit from us because things are no longer in our hands and we can just go out there and try to string a few results together, whereas the top five are perhaps expected to go up and that puts a bit more pressure on them.”

Turner praised his side for the manner in which responded to the defeats by Corinthian-Casuals and Folkestone, saying: “The season could easily have slipped away from us and we could have settled for a comfortable mid-table position but we had an honest chat with the players after the Folkestone game and said that if we kept going and strung a few wins together, you never know what might happen.”

Faversham have 10 games left to play and if they could notch six wins and two draws, it would give them 78 points, only one less than they achieved in finishing third last season.

Turner added: “You will have to consider yourself unlucky if you get into the high 70s and don’t make the play-offs and although the top five had had a strong run, that’s not to say that they will all finish strongly.”

Lilywhites begin their 10-match run-in with a visit to Merstham on Saturday.Turner is hoping that Luke Harvey will recover from the knock which forced him off during Saturday’s win over Eastbourne Town but he is less confident about the chances of Jamie Maxted, who has an ankle injury.