James Collins feels Faversham’s tough run of games will stand them in good stead.

The Lilywhites are off to Whitehawk this Saturday – the third week running they have faced a team in the Isthmian South East play-off places.

They followed a 2-0 defeat at Ashford by holding Cray Valley to a goalless draw at Salters Lane and their trip to Sussex represents another challenge.

Boss Collins said: “Better teams exploit your weaknesses more, which give you an idea where your weaknesses are.

“You can’t hide against these sides.

“It’s another tough one on Saturday and another game against a team in the play-offs.

“I’m hoping we will take another step forward in our development.”

Collins has won two of his first 10 league games since taking charge in November, with Town 17th in the table.

They’ve taken nine points in that time and are looking more solid, as proven by the draw with Cray Valley.

• Isthmian League latest
• Which Faversham player made team of the week?

Collins said: “Cray are a decent side, they’re good going forward.

“Unfortunately these teams are a little better than us at the moment but they’ve been together a long time, so I’m pretty pleased with how we’re doing.

“I go back to when we lost 2-0 to Whitstable and were terrible and I thought if we played like that against the top sides it would be a hiding.

“But we’ve managed to find a little formula that’s made us harder to beat and the Cray game was our third 0-0 in the league and fourth overall, so we’re not getting battered every week.

“You never quite know how it’s going to go when you come in. You’re managing someone else’s team to start with and there’s been a big turnover of players, so it takes time.

“We’re probably more settled than I thought we would be at this stage and we’ve had a tough run of games.”

One of the few survivors from the old regime is goalkeeper Luke Watkins.

He was named man-of-the-match against Cray after a superb performance which saw him save Gavin Tomlin’s first-half penalty and keep out the follow-up.

Collins said: “He’s made a great double save from a penalty and he kept us in the game against Ramsgate as well.

“I’d never had any dealings with him before but he’s a great lad.

“I wanted to have a look at him and our goalkeeping coach rates him highly. I’m happy to go with his opinion.”

Read more: All the latest sports news in Kent