Win half of their remaining games and Folkestone should make the play-offs but manager Neil Cugley doesn’t want his players sidetracked.

Invicta, third in Bostik Premier, already have 52 points following a 2-0 win away to Lowestoft last Tuesday.

They probably need another 28 to be sure of a top-five finish and with 18 games to go, that looks an attainable target.

But Cugley said: “I don’t want to talk about it too much because last time we seemed to freeze a bit and stop doing what I wanted the players to do. We want 55 points first. We’ll have a look after that and just keep going.

“It becomes such a disappointment then if you don’t achieve something, so I won’t put pressure on people too much.

“We didn’t expect to be up there so it’s a nice feeling. We’ve got three months now of having something to play for and off we go.”

Goals from Ian Draycott and Joe Taylor earned Folkestone maximum points at Lowestoft, where the home side finished with 10 men.

“It was pleasing,” said Cugley, who didn’t get home until almost 3am. “It’s a long day and scoring so early settled everything down.

“It gives you something to hold onto and it was a great goal as well.

“We’ve got 18 games left with 10 at home so you get Saturday out of the way and 10 of our last 17 are at home, so we can’t moan.”

That game is away to Hendon, one of the sides just below Invicta in the play-off chase.

“It’ll be hard,” said Cugley. “They’re good going forward so getting that clean sheet the other day should help our confidence.

“The league table, apart from ourselves, is about where we thought it would be with Leatherhead and Margate coming through, Staines up there and the big two, Dulwich and Billericay.”

A draw would suit Folkestone better than Hendon but Cugley’s going there to win.

He said: “Since I’ve been a manager, I’ve always done it that way.

“Let’s go and see what they’re about. I can’t think of many times I’ve gone to games to play out a draw.

“We’ll need x number of wins if we’re going to get in the play-offs so we’ll try to get them and it doesn’t matter who they’re against.”

Folkestone’s home game against Lowestoft was postponed on Saturday so Cugley watched on-loan midfielder Jordan Wright make his debut for Ashford in the 3-3 draw with Hythe.

As part of that deal, Invicta have arranged a friendly against United at Homelands on Tuesday.