Mark Ashford will keep his Witham Town players focused on tonight's Bostik League division north duties rather than a mouthwatering local derby in the FA Trophy that is coming up for them later this week.

Witham will host Coggeshall Town in the first qualifying round of the Trophy on Friday night, but it is tonight's league visit of Bury Town to the Village Glass Stadium that is occupying Ashford's thoughts right now.

"We can't think about the Trophy game yet," he said.

"All we have to think about is putting in a really good performance against Bury because they they are a good footballing team."

Witham know they need a strong display after taking just one point from their last four league outings and slipping to 18th in the division north table.

They were left frustrated on Saturday after putting in a strong performance against leaders Basildon United but ending up losing 5-3.

Ashford felt the result hinged on the sending off of Witham captain Danny Norton - a decision that he felt was "harsh" - for two bookings when the game was poised at 3-3 and the Town boss said his players should head into tonight's action with confidence after their strong display against the Bees.

He added: "The moment that you stop believing and start questioning yourself as a team then you are in trouble.

"Playing with fear is a very hard thing and it's my job to make sure the players aren't doing that.

"If you go into a game with a worrying mentality then you can't perform.

"It's up to me as manager to make sure they stay upbeat.

"Their mentality is being tested because a lot of them are playing at a level that they haven't been at before and we have to keep them positive and keep them believing in what we are doing because we have some very talented players.

"There is a reason why we scored three goals last weekend against the league leaders who had only conceded two in the league to that point.

"We have players who will go on to have very good careers and they have to keep believing."

Ashford said centre-half Jack Kemsley may miss out tonight after coming off after half-time in the game against Basildon with an ankle problem, but Pat Ahern should be fit to return to the starting line-up in the middle of the back line after overcoming an ankle injury himself.