Faversham boss Ray Turner is facing-up to life without top-scorer Dean Grant who is set to miss three games which could shape the direction of Town’s season.

The 26-year-old netted his 11th goal in his 16th appearance of the season as Town cruised to a 4-1 win over struggling Three Bridges on Tuesday night to go eighth in Ryman League Division 1 South, five points adrift of Corinthian Casuals in the final play-off place, though with two games in hand.

The Lilywhites head to Corinthian on Saturday and Turner admitted: “It was good to get the result in midweek when teams weren’t playing, we don’t want to be playing catch-up and a few teams are off to a flier.

“We’ve had the odd win or draw up there but we’ve had defeats the past couple of years. It’s a good surface and hopefully it will suit us.”

In a quirk of the fixture list it will be just Town’s third away league game of the season and their first since August and Turner admitted: “It’s going to be strange going away after so many home games.

“Things are looking good at home, we’ve got good players, we’re playing well and we’re scoring a lot of goals (16 in their past four home league games). Hopefully we can take that away with us.”

One player who won’t be able to play is Grant, whose work as an academy coach at Gillingham is taking him on a trip to Sri Lanka, meaning he will miss Saturday’s game (3pm) as well as the Tuesday night trip to Ramsgate (7.45pm) and the eye-catching clash with pace-setters and last year’s play-off rivals Dorking on Saturday week.

Turner said: “It’s a shame to lose his goals but there’s nothing we can do about it.
“Corinthian and Ramsgate are both good home teams and will be good tests for us but we have Jack Richards to come back in and George Monger and Sam Bewick are getting back to full fitness after a couple of games back from injury.”