Kevin Watson has challenged Ashford to build on the ruthless streak they demonstrated in the FA Trophy.

The Nuts & Bolts thrashed Binfield 7-1 in a First Qualifying Round tie at Chatham’s Maidstone Road ground on Sunday.

Boss Watson had questioned whether his new side had that level of ruthlessness before the game.

The haul included two own goals but he got his answer as Lanre Azeez, Johan ter Horst, Noah Carney, Harvey Brand and Ben Gorham put Binfield to the sword.

“It’s a scoreline where people raise a few eyebrows, don’t they?” said Watson. “I just think we were quite ruthless.

“You can’t get carried away.

“As a management team, we were questioning whether we had that about us to go and be that ruthless.

“There’s been games where we’ve had enough possession and chances to convert and we haven’t done so.

“So it’s good that we, as a collective group, recognise that we can do that.

“That aspect is pleasing, and it’s got to bring some buoyancy, but we’ve got to focus on what led us to get a result like that and replicate those instances and qualities again.

“We know we’re not going to score seven every week - that’s normally a once-in-a-season result.

“We can’t assume it’s going to be like that very often but it’s got to breed confidence the fact we’ve scored seven.

“What’s even more pleasing is we were forced into a few changes and the players that came on had an impact.”

Ter Horst was among those to come off the bench, replacing Ian Draycott early in the second half.

It was his second match in 24 hours, having turned out for Lydd Town on dual-registration on Saturday.

“Johan missed the whole of pre-season,” said Watson.

“He’s doing his physiotherapist training and he had to go up to Hull.

“He’s a healthy lad and kept himself ticking over but we felt there was an opportunity to get minutes more often at Lydd rather than us trying to integrate him slowly.

“We haven’t sent him out on dual-reg with the intention of not bringing him back.

“He played 75 minutes for Lydd on Saturday and because our game was on the Sunday, we asked him how he felt.

“We spoke again after the warm-up and he said he felt OK to play some minutes.

“He did that and he looked good and he executed his goal well.

“He’s renowned for being an attack-minded player and we’ve got multiple players who can play a number of positions.

“That’s a strength of ours when picking a team.

“The opposition can’t second-guess our team when we don’t even know it but, in all seriousness, it is good.”

Ashford are hoping their new 3G pitch at Homelands will be ready by the end of September.

In the meantime, Chatham is once again the venue for the Isthmian South East home game against Phoenix Sports this Saturday (3pm).

“It’s frustrating for the fans in the short term, which we understand, but once the pitch is done, it’ll be of a really high quality that will benefit everyone,” said Watson.

“If you’re going to have a pitch for eight to 10 years, waiting a couple of months for it to be done right is beneficial.

“We all want to be at Homelands. It’s in the best interest of everybody and, as the chairman said, financially it’s more challenging when you’re not playing at home.

“We’re taking a hit in the short term but in the long term it will pay dividends.”

Watson is wary of a Phoenix side who have taken only one point from four games since promotion back to Isthmian South East.

“You always need to be cautious when you’re playing a team who haven’t started that well because at some point the tide’s going to turn and you don’t want to be on the receiving end,” said the Nuts & Bolts boss, whose side have won their opening two league games.

“They will improve and they will pick up - that’s inevitable.

“Most teams are going to go on a run of three or four games when they don’t do so well.

“We can’t take anything for granted because it will change for them at some point.

“We’ll do our due diligence and hopefully get the desired result but there’s lots of ifs and buts.”

Kymani Thomas marked his comeback from a broken leg with an extraordinary goal from the halfway line as Ashford won 4-2 at Ramsgate in the League Cup on Wednesday night.

Thomas, playing his first game since suffering the injury playing for Herne Bay in February, scored a last-minute clincher against a young Rams side.