Boss James Collins concedes Faversham weren’t good enough in the final third during their defeat to rivals Whitstable on Monday.

The Lilywhites put Keith McMahon’s side under plenty of pressure, particularly in the second half, but found themselves 2-0 down after a goal in either half from Stephen Okoh and Kemo Darboe in the Isthmian South East encounter.

Substitute Emmanuel Oluwasemo, who came on at half-time despite suffering with a dead leg, scored his ninth goal of the season to give them hope but Faversham couldn’t find a late leveller.

Collins says it is the third league match at home this season they have lost 2-1 despite the manager feeling his side had performed better than the result suggests.

He admitted: “I don’t think we deserved to lose the game.

“But that’s now Sevenoaks who have come here and gone 2-0 up, and beaten us 2-1. Hythe came here, went 2-0 up and they’ve beaten us 2-1. Now, they (Whitstable) have done it.

“They are all teams that are below us so, for me, that’s nine points dropped against teams below us. If we had another nine points, where would we be? Even just another three points would probably catapult you up a few places.

• Report: Faversham 1-2 Whitstable

“It’s hard to take because I thought we gave away cheap goals and then we weren’t quite good enough in the final third.

“For 70% of the game, I thought we were on top - but we didn’t take our chances and they did, and that’s what happens.”

Faversham, who are 12th in the league table, had started 2022 with a credible 2-2 draw at second-placed Ashford on New Year's Day - but failed to back that performance up 48 hours later.

Collins said: “We had a good result against Sittingbourne here (on December 27) and then a great result at Ashford, but we then lose today.

“We weren’t complacent because we spoke about that before the game. We just weren’t quite good enough - we weren’t good enough defensively and we weren’t quite good enough in the final third.

“Ultimately, if that’s the case, you are probably not going to win many games of football and that’s why we didn’t win.”

To add to Collins’ problems, striker Owen Punselie has agreed to join the club - although has been unable to make his debut just yet.

Collins explained: “There’s some international clearance issues there.

“We aren’t sure what has happened because he has been playing for Holmesdale all season but we don’t know if he is internationally-cleared to play so we can’t play him.

“But hopefully, he will be involved on Saturday.”

The Lilywhites, who were also without midfielder Tyrell Richardson-Brown against Whitstable through work commitments, visit leaders Hastings this weekend after they 2-2 drew at VCD on Monday.