Andy Drury can see the positives of his play-off chasing Folkestone side playing this Sunday.

Isthmian Premier Invicta will face Hashtag United - a side they hope to compete with for a top-five finish this season - a day later than usual due to their weekend hosts ground-sharing alongside National League South team Aveley.

Folkestone manager Drury said: “It’s not a bad thing.

“Sometimes, you look at it and other teams are playing on the Sunday and, playing on the Saturday, you think ‘Let’s try and put some pressure on them.’.

“But there’s no one else playing on Sunday so we can see where a win would take us.

“It doesn’t really change anything for us because we haven’t got a game the following midweek.

“If anything, it gives us an extra day of rest so I don’t see it impacting our group at all.”

Hashtag have continued to settle nicely into life at Step 3 during their second campaign at the level.

“They have done really well this year,” Drury said. “They have signed a lot of good, experienced, players and they have got a lot of attacking threats.

“But every game is going to be tough. It’s more just about us turning up.

“Nine times out of 10, if we do that, we should be successful.”

Folkestone’s home game against Chichester was postponed last weekend. The Hashtag match will sandwich Tuesday's 2-1 loss at Dulwich and a journey to Cray Wanderers next weekend - three away matches Drury is well-aware of the importance of in the context of Invicta’s season.

Speaking before Tuesday, Drury said: “Cray, I went and watched beat Chatham 4-1, instead, on Saturday - not many teams do that!

“They’re three tough games and they’ll go a long way to defining our season.”

Invicta’s defeat at Champion Hill came despite goalkeeper Jonny Henly’s first-half penalty save, as midfielder Dean Rance bagged a stoppage-time consolation goal.

On the Chichester match being called off, Drury said: “Because the referee called it off a bit late, that was a bit disappointing.

“But I understood where he was coming from so, instead, it was just a training session for the players.

“The pitch was all right at the start of the week.

“Then, there was a bit of rain on it on the Friday and it just didn’t really recover from that.

“Hopefully, that’s the last one (called off due to the weather) and we have just got an extra game in hand.”

While the weekend postponement helped further highlight the need for Folkestone to build a 3G pitch - something they plan to do this summer - Drury added: “We have been a bit unlucky, as well, with the last couple.

“The rain has just come at tricky times a bit between 11am and 2pm and, even on Saturday, that happened.

"It shows why we’re getting a 3G pitch.”

An impromptu training session did allow a Folkestone team that has recently recalled young defender Joel Odeniran from his latest loan at Herne Bay, with coach Danny Kedwell also joining the backroom staff, more time together away from matches to gel.

“Greeny (Nathan Green) has got fit, Ade Yusuff has come in, and Luke Allen has come in,” said Drury, who hopes captain Ian Gayle and top scorer Dan Smith will return from short-term unavailability in the near future. “That gives us extra options.

“Joel has played a few games since he’s come back and Keds knows most of the players, anyway.

“Everywhere you look, we have got proper men now - and proper men on the bench, as well.

“The most important thing that we have got to do between now and the end of the season is keep everyone fit.

“If we keep everyone fit, we have got a good chance of having a good run.”

Paul Stanton has resigned as a Folkestone Invicta director this week.