Positive Cray Valley boss Steve McKimm won’t head into any match with a defensive mindset this season.

The Millers, last term’s Isthmian South East champions, are eyeing back-to-back promotions.

They sit second, five points adrift of Isthmian Premier pacesetters Dover, having twice come from behind to draw 2-2 at Crabble to extend their unbeaten league run to 10 games last weekend.

McKimm said: “I’ve said about it being just 18 games gone in the league and we have loads of games to go. But that’s just me, talking to keep the boys’ feet on the floor.

“I want to win every game and the players want to, as well - but I’m not going to sing from the rooftops and let everyone know that. We know what we want to do.

“We know what our targets are and the majority of teams in this league have now seen us, they know what we’re about, and I’ve been in this league before.

“With regards to the players, some haven’t and some have been in the league before, and we’re bringing other players in, as well, and we’re really going for it.

Report: Dover 2-2 Cray Valley

McKimm on Cray Valley’s dramatic draw at Dover

“I’m not going to say we’re going to win the league, I’m not going to say that we’re going to get into the play-offs, but there’s not one game this season where we’re going to sit behind the ball, absorb pressure and I’m going to think ‘Oh, that’s all right’.

“If we think we can win a game, we’re going to go and try to win the game.

“We proved that in the second half on Saturday.”

Trailing to stand-in Dover skipper Ruben Soares-Junior’s early goal, substitute Matthew Vigor looked to have snatched a late point at the end of normal time after forward Freddie Parker had hit the post with a penalty - before the late drama.

Jake Leberl’s men again went in front in stoppage time through right-back Roman Charles-Cook's goal, despite Soares-Junior having looked offside when he played him through, only for captain Mohammed-Idris Oshilaja to come up with an even later leveller.

On the late drama, which saw Oshilaja get a second yellow card for his goal celebration, McKimm said: “A few of their fans were behind our dugout, giving us a bit of grief and stuff like that, and we were having some banter with them.

“Then, they score and you think ‘Oh, here we go’ - but you have to take your medicine - and I took it. Then, 30 seconds later, we’re putting it into the back of the net and they have to take their medicine.

“That’s why crowds come to football. Was it pleasing on the eye? No.

“But I’ll tell you what it was, it was 22 players, plus the ones that came off the bench, who gave everything for their football clubs - blood, guts and thunder - and there was plenty of entertainment.

“The people that came in on Saturday I’m sure would have gone away, regardless of the result, happy with what they saw from both teams.”

While playing Step 3 football is a new experience for some of the Millers’ players, ex-Tonbridge manager McKimm is used to the level. He earned Angels promotion from the division in May 2019.

“Everyone knows everyone in this league and I’ve been in football long enough,” said McKimm, whose troops visit Hastings in the Velocity Cup tonight.

“Last year, I was in the lowest level that I’ve managed, but I’m not a snob. I loved it and we got success out of it.

“But I know this league inside and out in terms of managers, players, and systems from other teams and stuff like that. So, I’ve got a bit of an advantage of knowing the level.

“What me and my staff have got to do is implement that on the players and then the players have got to take that on board and take it out onto the pitch. So far, so good, they’re doing well.

“We have won seven and drawn three in the last 10 in the league. For a new club that’s just come up, you cannot ask for more than that.

“It’s fantastic from the players.”

The club, who were playing at Step 5 just five-and-a-half years ago, also cannot match-up to some of their rivals in terms of the size of the club and their fan-base.

But McKimm added: “It’s exciting times for this football club. I’m pleased to be leading it with my staff.

“We had about 50 people there on Saturday that had come on the coach and stuff like that, and that’s what we want. At the moment, we haven’t got thousands of fans.

“But what we have got is a nice, close-knit group, that gets behind us home and away. If we hadn’t come away with the right result, they would have seen the effort that the players put in.

“They would have still clapped us off, they would have still cheered us and they would still have been back this weekend. That’s what a football club is all about.

“You don’t really need people who come only when things are good and, as soon as things go badly, they disappear. We haven’t got that because we haven’t got the numbers.

“But what we have got is the ones that are here are loud, proud, and they love their football club.”

High-flying Cray Valley will next be in league action at home against fifth-placed Lewes this weekend.