WITHAM Town manager Adam Flint believes he and his players should be looking towards the top end of the Ryman League division north table rather than the bottom.

Town head into the new year in a considerably healthier position than the one they found themselves in 12 months ago and their 4-1 win against Brentwood Town on Boxing Day placed them just eight points off the play-off spots.

Witham now have two away days either side of New Year’s Day - at Norwich United tomorrow and then at third-placed Bowers and Pitsea on Monday.

It will be a tough start to 2017 for Flint’s team, but having already beaten Bowers once this season, he feels they should have nothing to fear and a good opening spell could set them up nicely for the end part of the campaign.

He said: “We have some tough games coming up starting at Norwich United on New Year’s Eve and then at Bowers (and Pitsea) on the second (of January).

“We have to see if we can get some results against teams who are up there like Bowers.

“We do seem to do well against sides like them as the boys seem to up a gear so it will be interesting over the next few weeks.

“I always said we’d be looking for the top ten and we’re not far off that now.

“We’re only a couple of wins short and I think a lot of where we can aim for the end of the season depends on the next few weeks and how we do with results against sides like Bowers, Hornchurch and Thurrock.

“Look at Bowers and how they flew up by stringing together a few wins.

“We’re capable of that and managers who we have faced have remarked to me that we have been one of the best sides they have faced in the division, but we have to cut out the silly results.

“We could be higher than where we are if we’d not had as many silly mistakes, but the aim has to be to get as high as we can and then think about next year.

“If we can build a run of wins then there’s no reason why we can’t think about a push for the play-offs.

“We are where we wanted to be heading into the New Year, in the top half and we’re now only eight points off the play-offs.

“We can start looking up now rather than down.

“Myself, James (Robinson) and Curtis (Whyte) were looking at the table after the Brentwood game and we’re now 13 points clear of Brentwood, who are third from bottom.

“So we’ve opened up a bit of a gap to sides down there and we’re looking up now.

“It’s a league where anyone can beat anyone - look at the result with Heybridge beating Maldon on Boxing Day - so we know we can challenge, but we can’t be complacent.

“We have to keep going, which I’m sure we will and we will keep picking up points.

“We’re in a better position than the club was this time last year.

“We had 32 points when we took over in March and we’re on 37 already this year.

“It just seems to have been silly games where we’ve dropped points, like against Cheshunt, so we’re not far away but we can’t be complacent.”

Flint said that he may be missing a few players for the trip to Norwich United as Lance Akins is starting a two-match suspension, while Tyler Hayes and goalkeeper Reece Paine are unavailable.

While Akins will be out for the game at Bowers as well, Paine should return for that and Flint was also hopeful that he would have Scott Kemp and Ryan Imbert back available as well.