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By Joe Harbert
Faversham Town manager James Collins admits the draw at high-flying Whitehawk was the side’s most impressive display since taking charge of the club.
Early goals from Stefan Wright and Joshua Dorling appeared to be giving the Lilywhites a shock victory on the south coast last Saturday, however Collins’ men could only come home with a point when they conceded two agonising goals in stoppage-time.
Despite being denied what would have been just their seventh win of the season in Isthmian South East, Collins says his ever-developing squad need to continue to ‘push their boundaries’ throughout the remainder of the campaign.
“It was obviously gutting to concede two late goals, but the boys were brilliant and put in the perfect performance for 93 minutes where I couldn’t fault them,” the former Cray Valley boss said.
“I think Whitehawk’s first shot on target was the goal and their second one was their second goal – before that I couldn’t see them scoring.
“So to go away from home and dominate particularly the first half, and then be really well-disciplined by limiting them to chances meant it was an outstanding performance that I am very encouraged by – it’s just a shame we couldn’t hang on and maybe disappointing that we could only score two.
“We now just need to keep maintaining our levels and push our boundaries as much as we can, and Saturday was excellent and by far the best performance since I’ve been at the club.”
The 36-year-old believes recent matches are demonstrating the growing improvements being made in the Faversham camp, something he hopes they can show again when they host Sevenoaks Town at Salters Lane this weekend.
Collins added: “I’m really pleased with how we’re improving and it’s something that we need to keep working on.
“We’re looking to improve all aspects of our play, and going forward is an area we need to work on, but we created six or seven clear-cut chances at Whitehawk which is the most I’ve seen us do.
“When it comes to who we’re playing, we can’t be concerned too much at who it is. As I’ve said before, we’re just trying to progress week-on-week and create continuity.
“I think we’re in a good place at the moment, but that can still go wrong pretty quickly. Our home form has been pretty good though, so hopefully we can keep building on that on Saturday.”