Faversham Town boss Ray Turner remains optimistic about his side’s chances of a return to the promotion play-offs this year, despite their seven-game winless streak.

Town haven’t won since the home win against Peacehaven on September 21, although the last six of the winless games have come on the road and four of them were exits from cup competitions.

The Lilywhites return to Salters Lane for the visit of struggling Chipstead on Saturday and Turner said: “We can’t get down and start sulking. We have to stay positive and keep working hard to make things turn.

“It’s been a tough time, I’m not disputing that but we don’t want to be too hard on ourselves, a lot of circumstances have contributed to it.”

He added: “We have had a lot of injury problems but I am proud of the players.

“We have travelled something like 500 miles through the last six away games and these players all have jobs to go to.

“We have been playing Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, games all over the place.

“The schedule has been difficult for us but we have all stuck together and spells like this will make us stronger.”

Town sit ninth in Ryman League, Division 1 South, only four points outside the top-five and with a trip to Burgess Hill to follow on Wednesday (7.45pm).

He said: “This run has not hurt us massively in terms of the league table but what I don’t want it to do is to start affecting the confidence of the players.

“I think to repeat what we did last year (reaching the play-off final) is going to be really hard but I am optimistic things are looking up.

“I am looking forward to the game on Saturday. Hopefully, we can get a win this week and I don’t see why we can’t go on a winning run. I am still positive, I know we can beat any team in this division on our day.

“The thing I am most looking forward to is getting the players back on the training ground. It’s been so long since we’ve had a chance to work on things together.”