Boss Wayne Anderson says he will not be pushing any panic buttons after Fakenham Town’s difficult run in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division, writes Gareth Davis.

The Ghosts had, prior to last night’s home fixture with Thetford Town, lost four games on the spin – after earlier winning four on the bounce in August.

Their bad run in September continued with Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at struggling Walsham le Willows – Robbie Harris scoring – but Anderson was never expecting the return to the top flight to be plain sailing.

The manager, who guided his young troops to promotion from the First Division last season, said: “I won’t be panicking. I’ll give it until Christmas and if we’re still sitting in mid-table I’ll be happy.

“You have to be realistic and look at what we’ve got so far and take a look at some of the bottom teams, they have barely got a point yet.

“We have got to expect to go down this road occasionally because we went up last season and now we’ve got to establish a strong first team that can pick up points regularly – we’re not going to win every game but we want to make sure we are picking up wins when we can.

“People are looking at me and saying ‘you’ve lost a few games, what are you going to do now’ but just remember, we went up last season and finished below Whitton United but look how they have started and with a far bigger budget than we have.

“I am really pleased with the talent we have at the club, from the under-18s through to the 21-year-olds, and in the next three seasons this club is going to benefit from that if we can keep them all together – the likes of Ricky Claxton, Daniel Tuddenham, Dion Frary, Ben Calvert and Callum Brain to name just a few.

“We’ve got to try and keep them going the way they are and believing in themselves because they will be very good footballers and they will step up.”

The youth team put on a tremendous display on Monday night as they progressed to the second qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup with a 6-1 hammering of Long Melford – who had eliminated the Ghosts from the competition last season.

Luke Gray bagged two, including one penalty, while Connor Walker also scored twice with Jacob Doy and Dan Jarvis completing the scoring in front of a Clipbush Park crowd of 57.

The reward for Neil Jarvis’s side is a home tie against Haverhill Rovers on a date to be confirmed.

Fakenham’s first team travel to Wivenhoe Town, who are below the Ghosts in the early-season standings, on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off in the Premier Division – and are without a midweek game next week – while the reserves are at home to Thorpe Village in Division Three of the Anglian Combination (2.30pm).

Last Saturday, Ben Pierce’s reserves beat Costessey Sports 4-1 in the Cyril Ballyn Cup.