Boss Wayne Anderson is looking for a positive response from his Fakenham Town players when they host Godmanchester Rovers on Saturday – after giving them the week off to “think about what they did wrong” when losing on their last outing.

The Ghosts went down 1-0 at Brantham Athletic five days ago with their worst display for well over a year, an afternoon that left Anderson admitting that he was “hurt” by what he had seen. This week was their first of the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division season without a night match so Anderson told his players to take time to think about their performances ahead of the Clipbush Park clash.

Anderson said: “I told the lads after the Brantham game to go home and think about it because they weren’t even mediocre, they were poor, very below-par.

“The players know how much work Neil Jarvis and I have put in and I’m hoping that they will have taken that on board and will go into Saturday with real flair to put it right for us.

“To be fair that sort of performance doesn’t happen very often and it hasn’t done last season and this. They were poor and they know it, and to see the players come off the field at the end and say ‘sorry Gaffer’ says it all. They realised how I was hurting, how Jarvo was hurting, how they were hurting, and hopefully we will put it right on Saturday.”

Brantham’s winning goal came from Shaun Webb on 22 minutes. Ben Boyce was sent off with 20 minutes to go for violent conduct after he had been on the receiving end of a couple of heavy tackles and will face a three-game suspension from a date still to be confirmed. Back for the Godmanchester game after his own ban is left-back Matty Dye, while Sam Garner and Stephen Harvey are both set to return having been rested at Brantham.

The Ghosts now know their FA Vase second qualifying round opponents at Clipbush Park on Saturday October 2 – they will host Mildenhall Town, who overcame Eynesbury Rovers 2-0 in Tuesday’s first qualifying round replay.

Also on Tuesday, Fakenham’s under-18s progressed through the FA Youth Cup preliminary round after a 4-3 victory on penalties against Ipswich Wanderers. The match had finished 4-4 after 90 minutes with Joe Woodhouse, Jacob Doy and Connor Walker (2) on target and extra time failed to separate the sides, despite Woodhouse’s red card.

On Saturday the club’s reserves kick off their Norfolk Junior Cup campaign away to Hickling (2.30pm). The Ghosts beat Brandon Town 5-0 in their last outing, Ricky Claxton bagging a hat-trick.