WITHAM Town manager Adam Flint wants to see his team crank up the pressure on promotion-chasing Canvey Island when they head to the south of Essex on Saturday.

Town will head to Canvey for a Bostik League division north fixture on the back of a 1-0 home win against Norwich United in midweek when Tyler Corlett’s powerful last-minute header proved to be the winner.

It took Witham three points closer to the 60-point target that Flint has set for his team.

They are now on 47 - sat 13th in the table - and will be looking for more success when they head to Canvey before a trip to AFC Sudbury on Tuesday.

Flint feels fourth-placed Canvey can’t afford to lose as they look to bolster their play-off bid and expects them to be feeling more pressure than his own side.

The Gulls did get the better of Flint’s side when they met at Witham in the reverse league fixture in October, but Town have already won at Canvey this season as they knocked the south Essex side out of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win in August.

And the Witham boss is looking for his side to put in another strong display.

He said: “I don’t think it’s a case of use owing them one as we beat them in the FA Cup the last time we were at their place.

“We just have to go there as strong as we can because we still owe it to other teams up there – like Bowers and other sides in the play-offs.

“But we have no pressure on us.

“They’re under pressure as they have to win, but we’ve got no pressure.

“We’ll go there and try to enjoy ourselves; we’ll take the game to them and hang in there and see what happens.

“There are certain players who we have to keep quiet like we did in the FA Cup game there.

“We were big and strong on that occasion and we won every second ball.

“We just have to have a go at them.

“It’s something we’ve shown we can do and we have to do it again.”

John Watson and Ryan Imbert will be unavailable due to personal commitments, but Witham assistant manager James Robinson agrees that Canvey will be the side under pressure and he wants to see the visitors turn up the heat.

Robinson added: “If we go up against them, I think that’s how we’ll do well as I’m not sure they do well under pressure.

“They can bully you when it’s going well for them, but when it’s not, they aren’t as effective.”

Witham will travel with confidence after Corlett’s late goal saw them beat Norwich United in midweek and although it wasn’t Town’s finest performance of the season, Flint was satisfied with their display - especially in the opening 45 minutes.

“I thought we were good in the first half,” added Flint.

“We created enough and put balls into the box, so we asked them to keep it up after half-time, but we lost our shape a little bit.

“Norwich had to win the game and they put us under pressure in the second half.

“I think last year we’d have conceded in that situation but we hung in there and scored late on again.

“We’ve scored a lot of late goals this season.

“That’s progression in itself, but I think it shows more than anything that we’re working hard out there.

“The players are digging in for each other.

“It’s definitely a positive thing that we’re not conceding and we’ve now had quite a lot of clean sheets this year.

“It was a bit like the Waltham Abbey game to be honest where we didn’t create enough in the second half.

“In the first half, Correy (Davidson), Shami (Pedulu and Liam Whipps were getting balls into the box but we didn’t do that in the second half.

“But I think that was down to the way they put us under pressure.”