Lowestoft Town forward Chris Henderson believes the Blues' squad is finally ready to move on from their play-off heartache.

The Blues continued their preparations for the new season with wins over King's Lynn Town and Thetford Town this week as the countdown to the big kick-off on August 10 moves ever closer.

Lowestoft will be looking to make their Conference dream come true at the fourth time of asking after three consecutive play-off defeats.

But Henderson insists there won't be any hangover from their latest disappointment going into the new season.

'It still hurts – we were only 90 minutes away from where we wanted to be and to think we're a good eight or nine months away from that again is difficult,' he admitted.

'But it's not talked about at the club – we've got to move on and focus on the new season now.

'What has happened in the past has got to stay there.

'I think the league is going to be tougher than ever this season and we can't afford to look back. A lot of very good teams have dropped down or come up into our division.'

Henderson revealed the Blues' management have been drumming into the squad the importance of approaching every game with the right mentality in the new season.

Lowestoft's promotion campaign floundered on their results against teams struggling in the division, dropping points against the likes of Thurrock and Carshalton Athletic at crucial times in the season.

'We know what we've got to do differently,' added the former Bury man. 'Against the better teams in the division they couldn't live with us.

'It was against the struggling teams that we dropped points.

'I suppose it must be a mentality thing but that won't be the case this season.

'Flem (Craig Fleming) has been on at us all summer and that's not going to stop.'

Henderson has been impressed with the new arrivals at Crown Meadow this summer with goalkeeper Ashlee Jones the latest signing after a successful trial period.

The Blues management will hope the new recruits settle quickly into a squad that prides itself on a buoyant team spirit.

'We're a close group – the closest that I've been involved with,' said Henderson. 'I know it's really important to the management that it stays that way as well.

'They want everyone as close as possible. We just need a bit of luck – that's all we were missing last season when the weather in the early part of the year really left us playing catch-up.'