Bouncing back from a poor display is the focus for Lowestoft Town when they return to the comforts of home this afternoon.

The Blues lost 3-0 to lowly Canvey Island for the second time in less than three weeks last Saturday, leaving them 12th and five points adrift of the play-off places in the Ryman Premier Division.

That performance was not up to the standards expected by manager Ady Gallagher, who wants to see a response against Wingate & Finchley.

'I was quite hard on the players after and during this week because that performance wasn't anywhere near good enough,' Gallagher said.

'We've got to be more aggressive in games like that. We've had a couple of disappointing league performances after a string of games playing well this season, and we can't allow that to creep into our play.

'We've got to be competitive in every single game, that was nowhere near good enough, accepting our fate was totally unacceptable and it's down to us try to rectify that.'

The visitors travel to Suffolk in fine form though, having won their last four games.

Two of those have been in the league and two in the FA Trophy, with striker Reece Beckles-Richards scoring eight goals in November – taking his tally for the season to 13.

'He's doing well for them but all players go through stretches of good form, that's something we've got to contend with,' the Blues boss continued.

'He's a decent striker but we can't gear our whole game around them, it's about our approach to the game.'

The Trawlerboys will be without influential centre-back Rory McAuley, who was sent off late in the defeat at Canvey last weekend, with a few other knocks being looked after in training this week.

But they return to Crown Meadown, where they have won three and drawn two of their last six home league games.

'At the start of the season we played reasonably well in a couple of (home) games and didn't get the results we deserved, but we've started to grind results out now so our home form has been pretty good recently,' Gallagher added.

'So now we need to try and rectify the performance of last week and try to get on a decent run.'

The fixture is the first of six this month as the Blues look to keep themselves in a position to mount a play-off pus in the new year.

That is despite a squad that is thin on numbers, after the club lost its academy system this season, leading to the sacking of striker Danny Crow for his involvement.

With midfielder Michael Spillane also leaving this week, joining National League South side Chelmsford City subject to clearance, Gallagher is not getting too far ahead of himself.

'It's all about getting results, I'm not getting too far ahead of myself,' the long-serving Lowestoft boss said.

'I'm just trying to focus on consistency but it is very difficult to do that and to try and manage a small squad, but there are no excuses for the type of performance we put in last week.

'You can at times but last week was not one of those days you could do it, so it's about maintaining standards and attacking games as we always have.

'If we do that then results will take care of themselves and league tables never lie.'