An outside chance of making the Southern Counties East Premier Division play-offs has “lit a flame” in the Lordswood players.

Lords are the form team in the division, with seven wins from their last eight games, dropping just two points since the start of the year.

Manager Nicky Southall has overseen big changes in personnel since taking over and Saturday’s home match against league leaders Glebe will be a big test of their credentials.

They certainly won’t be short of confidence heading into the match at Martyn Grove.

Southall said: “We have belief and a bit of a siege mentality about us, it’s an ‘us against the rest of the world’ mentality.

“We have got some good games to look forward to and we’ll be up against Glebe on Saturday and their boys who include Jamie Coyle, who I was with at Ramsgate last year - I know a lot about them, a good squad and a budget in the top three or four and with the squad they have they should be where they are.

“We have got Tunbridge Wells and then Deal Town after that, we have got some good games and some tough games ahead, so if we can come out unscathed it would be amazing for the club.

“I keep saying to the boys there is always one team that slips under the radar and sneaks into a play-off position and why can’t that be us? It seems to have lit a flame in the players.

“They have that bit between their teeth and are really looking forward to the next game.”

Josh Reid scored the winner against Rusthall on Saturday, a narrow 1-0 victory over the next-to-bottom side, a win that came a week after beating big-spending Faversham 3-2 and their midweek 2-0 success at Stansfeld.

Top or bottom, Lordswood have been bringing in the points, and Southall has done a lot of work in ensuring the players are well prepared for games.

“We train twice a week now,” he said. “The boys are fitter, more organised, more professional as the standards have gone up, that is first thing I said when me and Ross (Wiles, his assistant) came in, we wanted to up the standards.

“It’s non-league but I wanted to bring in professional standards on board, you can be professional in any sport, any job, just because you are SCEFL doesn’t mean you should think ‘I dont want to train today.’ Nobody fancies training after a day’s work but you just have to get there and once you’re there it’s a get away from it all.

“The Faversham win didn’t really surprise me, I could see it coming, we had been playing well. People probably just think ‘it’s only Lordswood’, but we came out flying, I really had the boys at it in training, we came out and scored twice in the first 15 minutes.

“They came on strong in the end but they should do, they have players who are probably two leagues above us. We had to approach it like an FA Cup tie.

“Second half in that game, if we had just a bit more composure in our decision making in the final third we could have got more goals, but credit to them, they came on strong and pushed us all the way.

“We have also come up against teams fighting for their lives and that doesn’t make it any easier.

“We dug in on Saturday, it wasn’t the greatest performance but the pitch was heavy, we got a win against a team that I think are in a false position. I think they are better than the teams around there, they will cause teams problems in the lead up to the end of the season.

“We now have a great game to look forward to against Glebe.”

Lordswood played a friendly match at Sheppey United on Tuesday night to give players who hadn’t featured of late a run-out, along with some who needed minutes like Archie Risdon, who is returning from injury. Southall also looked at a couple of trialists.

The club are also still waiting on the outcome of an investigation into their match against Punjab United which got abandoned, and whether it will be replayed.