The injury-hit Rocks go to high-flying Billericay Town on Saturday for what will be a tough game against the Essex side, who have started their Isthmian premier division campaign in fine form.

And they do so on the back of a much-needed 3-1 victory over Cray Wanderers at Nyewood Lane last Saturday thanks to goals from Tommy-Lee Higgs, Spencer Spurway and Dan Gifford.

The win provided some relief to Blake and his charges, who have stuttered in the league so far this season and who have also suffered a shock 4-0 reverse at home to Margate in the FA Cup.

But the triumph over Cray has given Blake confidence that his side are back on track even if he still has to contend with key players such as Tommy Block, Ben Anderson, Craig Robson and Lucas Pattenden missing.

He said: “You can’t always play good attractive football to get over the line –sometimes you have to win by whatever means, and although that’s not what we want to do as a club in the great scheme of things, as I say sometimes it’s a necessity.

“What we’ve struggle with recently is defending — stopping crosses, making blocks, getting our heads to the ball first and I’ve told the lads this is what is needed to be a success at this level. We have to make sure that we are pragmatic at times, more aggressive and we definitely have to make sure that we have first contact in both areas.

“The lads have shown a lot of bottle and a lot of bravery to overcome the week we had prior to the Cray game, with the cup defeat against Margate, and I’m really pleased with what I saw and we hope we can use this as a platform on which to move on.”

Blake has drafted in on loan young attacker Haydon Vaughan, 18, from National League Aldershot Town and he showed plenty of pace and power against Cray, providing two assists in the victory.

Blake added: “He is a real threat — an out-and-out wide player who likes to come in and go at players and defenders never like that. He’s come in and been a breath of fresh air and I think we’ll see more of the same from him during his loan spell with us. We probably need to bring in one or two more but we have to be very clever when choosing who comes in.

“We are monitoring the situation with all of those players we have injured and if we can start getting one or two of those back, it will add to our strength and ultimately I believe provide a better reflection of who we are as a team going forward.”