Faversham Town boss Ray Turner saw his side humbled at Hayes Lane last weekend by Cray Wanderers, and has admitted to KSN that it wasn’t something he enjoyed.

“I’ve never manged a team that’s been beaten like that and it’s quite a test of your mental strength and character,” he told us, “and how you lead the side out of that, particularly on the back of two defeats leading into that game.”

“You suddenly have to test yourself in bringing that group back together again and to believe in the messages that I’ve been sending out and making sure that you have a bit of perspective.”

“Perspective for me is very much a case of we’ve lost three points on Saturday particularly focusing on the scoreline – it was a horrible experience and it’s a test.”

“During my managerial period it’s a test – teams do get beaten and they get beaten heavily. I saw a reaction on Tuesday when I thought we were unlucky not to bounce straight back with three points against East Grinstead.”

Turner went on, “I do think that players and everyone at our level struggle with mental toughness sometimes and goals change games – you see a dramatic change in people’s body language and scorelines can have a real impact and so we had to be calculated as to whether it was the time to be giving out a rollicking or to have a bit of focus on what we’re doing and refocusing for the next game and saying that we’ve got another game on Tuesday.”

“It was important we had that game on Tuesday to get it out of our system – we did see a side who weren’t lying down after taking a kicking at the weekend, they stood up and said, “we’re better than that!”

“When you have runs like we’re on, it does sometimes go down to fractions – a confident side would have won two nil on Tuesday. Ultimately it was down to concentration and the marking thing at the end as one of my most experienced players holds his hands up and says that he wasn’t doing what he should have been.”

“You could have an assistant who gets excited and waves his flag – I don’t know if the ball was over the line or not – and we’ve got no chance of getting back in the game.”

“But you’re right as I’ve done so many games now and it is fractions and they don’t usually go your way after the couple of weeks that we’ve had.”

“Yet if you look at the League table, we’re still only five points off the Play Off places and it’s only October. I’ve done this for many times before, albeit the last two seasons we’ve haven’t got up there.”

“But I’m honest enough that three seasons is enough, and I know from my perspective that I’ve got to get Faversham Town back up challenging in and around the top eight.”

“We need to build on the tiny step forward that was Tuesday and go into a Cup game at the weekend hoping that players can push on and hopefully go on without the pressure of League points and the pressure of looking at the League table.”