"OUR season starts here," is the message from skipper Mike Trim as Oxted go in search of their first win of the campaign on Saturday.
After a disrupted pre-season followed by three defeats and a draw from their opening four Conference East games, it is not the start Oxted might have hoped for but Trim is confident there is light at the end of the tunnel.
"We are starting to get used to each other as a team now and our new players are beginning to settle in," he said. "Really our season starts here and we are very excited about what the campaign ahead could produce.
"We are still getting used to the way each other plays and there has been a few positional shuffles, but I'm confident and now we just need to start picking up the points to back that up.
"We have Cambridge City at home on Saturday. They have picked up a few points but I know their coach and the way they will play. If we focus on our game and play the way we know we can play then I'm confident we can come away with the points."
Oxted suffered a 6-0 defeat at home to title favourites Holcombe last weekend, but Trim admits there were plenty of positives.
"If we had played like that in our previous three games then I think we would be sitting on nine points now," the skipper said.
"A 6-0 loss looks bad, it looks like Oxted got thrashed again but we finished the game in high spirits because we knew it was a good performance. It was our best performance of the season, although that probably isn't saying much.
"With the players Holcombe have, they should be winning every game and they are. They were clinical in the final third.
"We held them for the first 25 minutes but their fitness was better than ours and that began to tell towards the end of the game. The important thing was we never gave up and carried on playing until the whistle."
And Oxted will be boosted this weekend by the arrival of Chris Porter, a former Peterborough player who can play in midfield or as a forward.
"Our Australian overseas player Chris Coleman knows Chris from when they were both playing out there and he recommended him," Trim said. "He played for our seconds last week and he looks a really good addition."
