LEATHERHEAD boss Richard Brady has called for consistency from his side, who he says are currently blowing "hot or cold".
The Tanners picked up three points from two trips to Kent this week, winning 5-0 at Whitstable Town on Saturday before crashing to a 4-1 defeat at Ramsgate on Tuesday.
That followed an exit from the Surrey Senior Cup last Wednesday in a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Met Police, which allows the Tanners to concentrate fully on their promotion push.
But Brady has warned that they will need to show more consistency if they are to achieve their goal of promotion back to the Ryman Premier Division at the first attempt.
He said: "We are a team that is either hot or cold at the moment.
"When we are hot we crush teams, but it we are not on it, then like everyone else in this league you can easily lose a game.
"The league is unusual in that sense because there isn't really any pattern to the league and the results.
"It is a cliche but every game is a tough game and if you don't turn up or don't work hard enough, you will lose."
Brady bemoaned some sloppy goals on Tuesday as the Rams ran riot against Leatherhead, adding that the hosts took four of their five chances to give the scoreline a rather harsh look. But he admitted the Tanners did not compete as well as they should have done against another side chasing a play-off spot, adding that they would need to now bounce back against fellow play-off hopefuls Hythe Town and Folkestone Invicta, who both visit Fetcham Grove this week.
"We have got to move on," he said. "We need to win games of football and we need to bounce back from Tuesday.
"It is good because we don't have to wait long for another game at the moment, but we need to pick up the points.
"The players were disappointed themselves after Tuesday night and they know the problem has been inconsistency of late.
"It is the most frustrating thing, but hopefully we can put that right.
"We can't take our foot off the gas as we know we will be punished, but we perhaps need that little bit of luck too, which we didn't have on Tuesday night."
Brady is hoping to be able to welcome back a few players from injury this week, with Jerry Nnamani, Kev Terry and Neil Jenkins all pushing to be in contention on Saturday.
Striker Tom Bradbrook is likely to miss out, but Brady is hopeful he will be involved again soon.
