Kevin Watson feels Ashford have given themselves something to build on after ending a poor run of form.

The Nuts & Bolts beat Erith & Belvedere 4-1 on Saturday and started 2024 with a 2-2 draw at Herne Bay on New Year’s Day.

Victory over the Deres - with Danny Parish (2), Rhyle Ovenden and Vance Bola on target inside 30 minutes - ended a run of four successive Isthmian South East defeats.

And with a creditable point away to Watson’s old club taking Ashford’s tally to six goals in two games, the side appear to have found their shooting boots.

Harvey Brand and Bola struck as the visitors came from a goal down to lead but Bay rescued a point.

“We scored a few quite early against Erith & Belvedere, which was important, because when we get chances I think we’ve been quite critical of not taking them earlier,” said boss Watson.

“We certainly did in that game and it gave us a good foothold.

“The second half wasn’t as glamorous but we can’t have everything, can we?

“If we’d got more it would have been good for the goal difference but before the game you’d have taken a win, regardless of the scoreline, especially after the four successive league defeats.

“We were discussing how we can capitalise on being in good positions but it comes down to a technical thing in terms of players finishing.

“And saying that, we had a couple of opportunities at Herne Bay when we were 2-1 up and might have scored again.

“It was quite a tight game, I felt.

“At times they put us under a lot of pressure with deliveries into the box and we dealt with quite a lot but we did concede from two set-pieces which is always disappointing.

“We had some chances at 2-1 up and even at 2-2 to either extend our lead or regain the lead and then they had a very good chance at the death. I think it was a fair result.

“We were slightly disappointed with our first-half display.

“It just wasn’t our usual way of playing and in all fairness to Herne Bay they kind of nullified that.

“So there’s elements where we’re frustrated but in the grand scheme of things we’ve shown resilience and defended our box other than the two set-pieces.

“At the other end, we were still able to create sufficient chances and score two good goals from open play.

“We hit the woodwork a couple of times and their keeper pulled off some good saves.”

Ashford are 10th at the turn of the year, seven points off the play-off places, with all to play for.

They host third-placed Three Bridges at Homelands on Saturday (3pm) and visit Broadbridge Heath on Tuesday (7.45pm).

“We’ve got a platform to build on now,” said Watson.

“The group are more familiar.

“We’ve had quite a few injuries and we might need to try and strengthen, which is always more difficult than people assume because there’s lots of elements that go into making a signing.

“We don’t want to panic-sign.

“Ian Draycott’s still not back to fitness yet, neither is Lanre Azeez, and Noah Carney and Anthony Edgar are only just back.

“We need to be able to cope with the number of games we’ve got coming up, with four in 10 days.

“It’s a busy January, not just for us, but for lots of teams in the league.

“We’re not even halfway through the season yet, so there’s lots of football still to be played.

“For us, it takes time when you come into a new club and it’s about managing expectations of everybody, the players, us as a management team, and the fanbase.

“That natural progression, that trajectory, it doesn’t always work how you’d like it to straight away.

“The league’s very tight. Ramsgate are doing extremely well and Cray Valley are close behind them, and then there’s probably a pack of eight or nine teams in and around it.

“If somebody in the pack puts three or four wins together, they’ll probably find themselves in a play-off place.

“From this period onwards, there’s changes at clubs in terms of personnel and ways of doing things.

“There may be managerial changes as well.

“We just need to concentrate on our camp and doing things properly and training well and working on the things we’ve identified over the last four months as areas of development, without losing sight of the strengths.”