ANDY Ballard knows the magnitude of the task facing Oxford City at Maidstone United tomorrow.

City visit a side who are just outside the Vanarama National League South play-off places and won 4-1 at Court Place Farm last month.

Ballard’s men have lost their last two fixtures and the interim joint manager revealed he will change his approach in Kent.

He said: “We will go into that game with a different game-plan to that we have had in the last few weeks.

“Maidstone are one of the best sides we have played this season, and we know how tough it will be with a big crowd against us too.

“But we’ve proved on several occasions that we can beat the top sides, and it’s not inconceivable that we can go to Maidstone and get a result.

“We don’t need to put pressure on ourselves, but just put in a performance and the result will take care of itself.”

City will aim to bounce back from a shock 4-1 home defeat to struggling Braintree Town last Saturday.

With other results going their way, they remain in 13th place, seven points outside the play-offs.

But Ballard admitted it was an opportunity missed.

He said: “On the whole against Braintree, we didn’t play particularly badly, but we were extremely naïve in our attacking sense and gave the ball away too much.

“Their first goal really stunned us, because at that point, we were on top.

“It really knocked us for six.”

Goalkeeper Craig King is close to returning from his groin injury but is still not fit, so on-loan Oxford United stopper Max Harris continues in goal.

Ballard otherwise names a full-strength squad, but with City just eight points above the drop zone he knows his side are not safe.

He said: “We’re not out of the woods yet, but equally, there’s a lot of games to be played and in a league where everyone can beat everyone, we just need to focus on ourselves.”

“We will see where we are at in the next few months and see whether we are challenging or not.”

Oxford City (v Maidstone Utd, away): from Harris, Jones, Jefford, Oastler, Wiltshire, Fleet, Ashby, McEachran, Berkoe, Lofthouse, Gordon, Moore-Azille, Benyon, Owusu, George.