Darren Blackburn is considering how to take the next step at Sittingbourne with their play-off bid effectively over.

Bourne are seven points off the Isthmian South East top five with four games remaining following a goalless draw with relegation-threatened East Grinstead on Saturday.

It’s been a successful season with boss Blackburn transforming the pre-season relegation favourites into a solid top-half side who have shown they can compete with the best.

He remains focused on finishing the campaign strongly but is thinking about what it will take to become genuine play-off contenders.

“No one expected us to get that last play-off place this season and I don’t know if we had enough belief in ourselves to go out and get it,” said Blackburn, whose side are seventh.

“Anything can still happen but it feels like this was the game where it slipped away.

“We worked on a slightly different plan, pressing from the front, trying to win the ball higher up, and getting on the front foot, but nothing materialised for us.

“We needed a set-piece or something to go in and then they’ve got to come out and change their gameplan but credit to East Grinstead.

“We half-threatened a few times, we had a few blocked shots where people have taken too many touches in the box but I think that’s the difference between our team and the teams up the top who would have found a way to grind out a 1-0.

“It was the longest chat we’ve had after a game for a while.

“From my point of view it’s hard to give the lads a rollicking when they’ve done as well as they have and come that close to the play-offs.

“There’s a few games we’ve lost or not turned draws into wins and that’s why we’re six or seven points off it.

“I could give you those six or seven points in about 10 seconds in games where we’ve let things slip.

“I’ve been racking my brains all weekend over what we need to do to push ourselves up the table and be play-off contenders or more comfortable play-off contenders.

“The honest answer at the moment is I don’t know because we’ve exceeded expectations with a young squad, and we were second favourites to go down in the predicted table.

“A little naivety has cost us at times but if these players stay together, they’ll have had a whole season at this level, which will stand us in good stead.

“I just think we probably are missing a little bit of experience down the spine.

“We could do with an experienced midfielder to come in and settle things down on the pitch and talk to the younger ones.

“If we defend like we have and score a few more goals, with two or three, maybe four, new faces, we might be able to take that next step.

“We can’t compete financially with those above us, the club know that and are realistic with expectations.

“There’s no pressure on me here but I want to push the lads to be better and push the club to be better.

“We’ve proved you don’t need thousands of pounds a week to be competitive, just a group of lads who are willing to work hard for each other.”

Sittingbourne visit Burgess Hill on Saturday, with Blackburn confident their efforts this season will help his pre-season plans.

He added: “I’ve got three or four targets in my head and a way I’d like to play.

“If I can get those players, there’ll be specific roles for them to come in and do.

“We’ve given ourselves half a chance with recruitment by being competitive this year.

“In years gone by we’ve finished down the bottom and people have seen us as their 16th or 17th choice.

“They’ll go everywhere else first in pre-season and come to us at the end, if we’re lucky, but now they might consider us first.”