By Alex Hoad

New boss Peter Nott says his only target is to keep Maidstone up but hasn’t ruled out a late assault on the Ryman League, Premier Division play-offs.

Reserve team boss Nott and his assistant Tony Cornwall took over from the departing Lloyd Hume and Alan Walker just 24 hours before the 3-0 home defeat to Hendon on Tuesday.

The defeat left the Stones just three points off the bottom four, having lost three games in a row and without a goal in five of their last six games in all competitions going into Thursday's game at Carshalton.

Nott (pictured) said: "Our job is to steady the ship. The key is to make sure we are still in the league at the end of the season.

"With the quality of squad we have got we should be challenging and with the way the league is, we have got an outside chance of making the play-offs."

Stones welcome Horsham on Saturday but could be without midfielders Jay Saunders (knee) and Roland Edge (calf) while Tom Parkinson remains sidelined. James Peacock starts a four-match ban.