Dereham have given themselves a platform to build on ahead of the visit of Bowers & Pitsea.

Back-to-back victories in the past seven days have earned the Magpies FA Cup progression, prize money of £3,000 and three precious Ryman League Division One North points. Having doubled their tally for the term so far in their fifth game, boss Matt Henman now believes it will be a case of onwards and upward.

'The most important thing, with the start we've had, was to get a couple of wins,' said the Dereham boss. 'I still wouldn't say we are playing at our most fluent best, but having lost a couple of games by the odd goal it feels very good to have won a couple by the same margin. It's just what we needed to get us moving.'

Tuesday's 1-0 home league triumph against Ware, which came hot on the heels of Saturday's 2-1 victory against Holbeach, lifted the Magpies up to 16th – only eight points behind early pacesetters Bury Town.

Henman added: 'The early indications are I don't think there's going to be many, if any, teams that churn out win after win. A lot of teams are taking points off each other so we just need to make sure we stay in contact and keep picking up draws and wins while not losing too many.

'I still believe we'll get better, with players coming back, and I think we'll be ok. The last couple of wins have made things look a lot better and if we get another win this weekend we should move into the top half.'

Michael Sommerfield is unavailable while Jay Eastoe-Smith, Adam Smith and Craig Bussens all return to a squad that is likely to include Danny Beamount – who scored his first goal on his return for a third spell at the club in midweek.