Leading scorer Ian Draycott has warned the chasing pack that both he and Folkestone are going to get stronger in the second half of the season.

Draycott fired in 43 goals during his debut campaign for Invicta and he netted his 17th of this campaign to earn a 1-0 win at Chatham on Tuesday night.

Folkestone, four points clear at the top of Ryman League Division 1 South, boast the division’s tightest defence and are averaging more than two goals a game at the other end.

But the former Maidstone man said: "We feel we can still go up a gear or two. On the goal front, I’m happy but performance-wise, we could do better as a team going forward.

"I scored 33 in the league last season so I’m aiming for 30 again. If I can get there, I’ll be happy. I wanted 15 goals before Christmas and 15 after.

"I’ve been promoted a couple of times out of this league. With the organisation and the players we’ve got in the squad, it’s full of potential.

"The next job is living up to that potential. In a few weeks’ time, we’ll probably have the strongest squad we’ve had all season.

"Hopefully, we can keep this run of results going, tweak things here and there and see the performances improve."

Draycott tasted play-off success with Maidstone in 2013 and Leatherhead in 2014 but was on the losing side in last season’s final when Invicta were beaten by Merstham.

A superb start to this campaign has laid the foundations for Neil Cugley’s side to avoid the play-offs this time and go up automatically.

Draycott said: "Results have been good and that’s the reason we’re sitting at the top.

"We’ve probably got a few more experienced heads this season. The players we brought in have got that winning mentality and we feel like we should win every game in this league.

"We feel like we’ve let ourselves down in the past with the way we’ve started but this season we started the way we should.

"On a personal level I feel I’ve done OK. I had a good season last season and I hit a purple patch when everything was going right for me.

"I’m still doing OK and that’s showed with my goals."

Read the full interview in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.