Lowestoft Town defender Greg Crane insists the Blues will be able to stay the course in the Ryman League Premier Division title race.

The Blues are starting to eat into their games in hand over their promotion rivals after beating Hastings United just two days after drawing against Whitehawk at Crown Meadow.

How the squad recovers from each game will prove key as the Trawlerboys endeavour to make up the five matches they have over Whitehawk and Crane revealed that 'Operation Lean' is in full force.

'I've been doing the extra work – myself and Erks (Erkan Okay) have been doing a bit extra to get lean and all the lads are preparing correctly for each game,' he said. 'We haven't had the chance to train really (as a squad) because of how many games we've had. It's important that we get our rest and the management trust us to go away and do it ourselves to prepare correctly.

'Training sessions are probably going to be few and far between now and it's up to all of us to prepare right. I think we will be fit enough and we've got enough members in the squad to rotate and cover.'

Crane has been in superb form at the back for Lowestoft in recent weeks, making a big contribution to the Blues' record of 10 clean sheets in their last 14 games.

'I had been out for a little while so it was good to get back in and get a run of games,' he said. 'I feel my form is good at the moment and I just want to keep it going. The games are going to be coming thick and fast for us so we've just got to get our heads down and prepare right for each game.'

Lowestoft's win against Hastings on Monday was the kind of result the foundations of a promotion campaign are laid.

The Blues weren't at their best having had just over 48 hours to recover from the match against Whitehawk whilst Hastings came with a game plan to make things as difficult as possible.

It is a situation Lowestoft have had to come to terms with in the Ryman League, says Crane.

'Every team is going to come and make it difficult for us but we've got to come up with the answers and create and score goals and keep clean sheets,' he said.

'It's not going to be a game (against Hastings) we look back on and say we played some glowing football but it's another three points on the board so we will take that.'