Ray Turner admits Faversham are in a Bostik South relegation battle and anyone not up for the fight should get out of Salters Lane now.

Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at Ramsgate was Town’s sixth in a row and eighth in 10 league games to leave them third from bottom.

Turner also felt hard done by to finish pointless from Saturday’s 2-1 home loss to Guernsey – with Town pushing for an equaliser in both games, despite being controversially reduced to 10 men.

Turner said: “It’s a difficult enough time as it is, without playing with 10 men. It is telling, though, that in these past two games we’ve been down by a goal and pushing for an equaliser in the closing stages, even with 10 men.

“That said, I know the only thing that matters is results.”

He added: “We have told the players, we all have to face reality – we have lost six on the bounce.

“We are in a relegation battle but it’s still early in the season.

“We have to take this on the chin. We are down there for a reason, we can’t hide.

“We have talked about it and Danny Walder said he and Mark Lovell were at Tonbridge when they lost 10 in a row but still managed to finish second.

The group want to turn it around. We have got to keep going. Nobody is throwing the towel in and anyone who doesn’t want to fight can go. I 100% back this group to get us out of this.”

Turner has seen Ryan Cooper leave for Folkestone, Jordan Casey and Sam Lawford head to Canterbury, Luke Harvey sign for Sheppey, Kyron Lightfoot go to Tuesday’s visitors Cray (7.45pm), Bola Dawodu join Sittingbourne, and Macca Murray switch to Whitstable this week.

In addition, Jamie Maxted has been affected by a long-standing back problem, while Josh Stanford, Charley Robertson and Renford Tenyue are all out with long-term injuries.

Turner said: “It’s been my hardest spell in management –but we’ve had them before and come through them.

“We’ve been in most of our games and there are positive indicators like our goal difference (just minus six after 10 games, despite eight losses) that we’re not that far away.”

Town leave their league woes behind them with Saturday’s FA Trophy preliminary round trip to Waltham Abbey (3pm) and Turner said: “In a way it’s a bit of a relief. I am hoping the players will relax a bit, knowing there are not points at stake.”

Ollie Lee will train with Town after leaving Whitstable this week and Turner said: “It’s started to look like a complete rebuild. I’ll hopefully have another two defenders in before Saturday because Matt Bourne and Carl Rook have suspensions coming up.

“It’s important to freshen things up with some new faces because you don’t want a side going out feeling beaten before they start.”