Tonbridge are treating themselves to an overnight stay ahead of their away match against Truro on Saturday.

Jay Saunders’ National League South side will set off tomorrow morning as they aim to maximise preparations by breaking up the 560-mile round journey.

Truro sit in the play-off positions in fourth and are on a four-game unbeaten league run, but ninth-placed Angels are only just outside the top seven themselves as they look to build on Tuesday’s 1-0 home win against Dorking Wanderers.

“We’re looking forward to it,” said manager Saunders.

“The club has been good enough to let us travel on Friday morning. That’s quite new to us. We’ll prepare as best as we possibly can.

“Hopefully, we will go there full of confidence after Tuesday’s game and get something.”

For some in a young squad, the extra day of preparations will be a new experience.

Saunders admitted: “Your routine changes. It’s an experience.

“A lot of these players want to go and be professional footballers. The club has gone out of their way to do it for us. It’s different for the players.

“But after Tuesday’s game, we will be in good spirits.”

Defender Jamie Fielding came up with the game’s only goal at Longmead as Tonbridge responded after successive league losses in front of a big crowd of 1,202 against Marc White’s team.

It was the third goal for Fielding in their last four matches.

Saunders said: “I think we need a few other defenders to chip in.

“But Jamie is popping up in some good areas. He took his goal really well.

“If you see it, it’s a clever back-heel from a free-kick. I’ve said about how important he is for us.

“Sometimes, we need a bit more out of the senior ones and, although it sounds a bit weird because he’s only 25, he’s one of the senior ones.

“I’m delighted he got his goal on Tuesday.”

The game also saw Angels keep a first clean sheet in the league since early September.

Saunders reflected: “We needed to start the game well.

“We lost Ryan Hanson from Saturday so we ended up with quite an attacking midfield but I thought for the first 15 or 20 minutes - if not a bit longer - we were excellent and could have been more than 1-0 up.

“Second half, we expected them to come back a bit, but we restricted them to not a lot, bar one save that Toby (Stewart, the keeper) had to make.

“It’s been a few weeks since we last kept a clean sheet in the league so that was good.

"But I think that’s seven clean sheets [in all competitions] this season.”

That result came after Angels had been edged out 3-2 at promotion-chasing Worthing last weekend despite goals from defender Nazir Bakrin and forward Trevan Robinson.

“I thought we were unlucky to come away with a defeat against Worthing,” noted Saunders. “The first 35 minutes, we were the better team comfortably and, even at 1-1, we had chances that we didn’t take.

“I saw enough in the performance to know that we weren’t far away from another win.

"I don’t know if we had one eye on the FA Cup [against lower-division Harborough Town], but we had to lay the law down a little bit. We had to say ‘We have got two games before the FA Cup’ so we cannot be too distracted by that.”

Right-sided midfielder Fumnaya Shomotun has joined Isthmian Premier Cray Valley PM permanently after an initial one-month loan.