Isthmian South East leaders Hastings are next up for Faversham - and manager James Collins is looking forward to playing on their pitch.

Town will visit the Pilot Field on Saturday on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Whitstable on Monday - with their Salters Lane surface, which is shared by Canterbury City, in far-from-ideal condition.

Hastings are two points ahead of second-placed Ashford, who Faversham drew 2-2 with on New Year’s Day - Clark Woodcock and Jono Richardson scoring - and four clear of Herne Bay in third, although both have a game in hand on them.

Collins said: “We have just gone to Ashford, who are second, and got a good result there so we will give it a go.

“But it’s so tough out there. We have played on a 3G pitch (at Ashford) and played some nice football.

"But then, we have come back here and then Hastings will have a nice surface, so it will be a completely different game again.

“I said to the boys that it’s hard to play on this (at home), then go and play on different pitches - it’s making it hard to find a rhythm.

"But we will certainly look forward to playing on their nice pitch.”

Faversham have been plagued by injuries and Covid for several weeks, with neither top scorer Emmanuel Oluwasemo or Dover loanee Marshall Wratten fully fit when they came on against Whitstable, despite Oluwasemo netting his ninth goal this season.

Collins explained: “Manny’s injured and we look like a different team when he’s not in the side.

“He had a dead leg and he barely could run, and Marshall was injured but we brought him on. But I’m not going to talk about it.

“We have been going on like this for weeks. I cannot criticise the players.

"Kelvin (Ogboe) is playing at left-back and he’s not a left-back, Lewis Chambers is at centre-half - the whole team is just the wrong way round and we need to work on stuff.

“We found a bit of rhythm but having to take Bola Dawodu out the middle of the park (to put him up front) made a difference, not being able to start Manny made a difference and we were missing Tyrell Richardson-Brown as well.”

Collins hopes the squad will be strengthened before their trip to Hastings.

Striker Owen Punselie has agreed to join, although Town are still awaiting clearance to play him, with Collins adding: “There will be another signing with a new centre-half coming in.

“Hopefully Marshall and Manny will have recovered. Charlie Dickens should be back from Covid.

“Harry Harding has done a run and, hopefully, he should be back in training - although I don’t think he will be back just yet.”

Faversham visit Isthmian South Central Thatcham in a rearranged Velocity Trophy second-round match on Tuesday.