MARK Jermyn insists the Magpies are not setting themselves any targets when it comes to the number of points they may need to guarantee their survival this season.

The Dorchester Town player-manager says the only thing he and his players will be focusing on is how high they can finish in the table.

A win at home against Histon tomorrow (3pm) could see the county town outfit move 10 points clear of the bottom three in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division.

However, if results don’t go in their favour then they could find themselves getting sucked back into a relegation scrap, one they have eased clear of during the last six weeks.

But after five victories in eight games, Jermyn isn’t giving his men a specific points total to aim for to make sure of their safety.

“We’re not really looking at that,” he said. “We’re looking at how high we can finish.

“It might sound a bit naive, and I don’t mean it to, but we want to be looking up and not worrying about what is going on below us.

“We have got players who can compete in all these games and we don’t want to be finishing the season one place off the drop zone.

“Tactically, I think we are doing alright at the moment and everyone is happy with how we are playing.

“I speak to the players regularly to get their thoughts and all the lads seem to be positive about things.

“We’d just like to get a bit more consistency in our performances.”

Histon, three points below the Magpies, have gone eight games in the league without a win, though they did draw with leaders Poole last time out.

Meanwhile, Jermyn welcomed the news that Portsmouth loanee Bradley Tarbuck is staying at the Avenue for another month.

He added: “Bradley has given Portsmouth some good feedback and they were more than happy for us to keep him.

“We have players with a lot of experience who have helped him, and it’s brilliant for us to get loan players of his calibre.”

Magpies (from): Walker-Harris, Tarbuck, Oldring, Jermyn, Dillon, Gleeson, Morgan, Lanahan, Walker, Watson, Smith, Murphy, Brookes, Parrett, Murray, Crittenden