Chris Cummins feels he now has competition for places in his Kings Langley squad and is hoping they can get close to the play-offs this season.

The Orbital Fasteners Stadium club are currently 14th in Southern League Premier Central table and are on a good run of form with only one defeat in their last six league outings, having come from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-2 draw at home to Peterborough Sports on Saturday thanks to Jordan Parkes’ injury-time penalty.

That sequence was due to have its next test this evening with a trip to struggling Alvechurch, but the game has been postponed due to the bad weather.

Cummins has been at the Kings helm for approaching three-and-a-half months and made former Watford striker Will Hoskins his most recent acquisition to a squad that had player-coach Jordan Parkes, ex-Southend United and Barnet forward Harry Crawford and Hornets legend Lloyd Doyley among its number.

“I’m happy with what I’ve got,” Cummins said of his squad after Saturday’s draw. “Would I like a bit more quality here and there? Of course, everybody would. The good thing now, and it probably happened in the last game and now this game, is there’s competition for places which is what I want.

“Saul Williams today wasn’t at his best, but I can change it at half-time knowing I’m going to bring on somebody who’s as good as Saul and that’s going to improve the squad and I haven’t been able to do that.

“That’s key for us and it’s given the lads a bit of a lift as well. Mitchell Weiss has played the number nine all season. He’s not really a number nine for us, but with Will coming in, with Harry coming back, it’s sort of taken the reins off him a little bit and getting forward he’s done great getting the penalty [to earn the draw].”

Kings are currently 11 points outside the play-offs with 19 matches remaining this season. While a top-five finish may be a tough ask, Cummins is hoping to get as close as possible to the end-of-season shake-up, but says he is under no pressure to achieve a play-off place.

Watford’s former assistant academy boss said: “We’re building. This is a long process, we’re trying to put things in place, trying to get the culture right, the lads are buying into it, the club are buying into it and I think all we can do is keep going. If we can get near the play-offs then great.”

Cummins continued: “There’s no pressure on myself anyway otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the job. The club’s evolving and improving, there’s good people running the club, they’re learning the same as I am, this is my first year in non-league football.

“We always look at the next game so it’s not one of those where we say to ourselves ‘right, we need to make the play-offs’. We want to finish as high as we can.

“I can’t wait until pre-season if I’m honest when I can put my own stamp on it, bring in a few more players and really get the lads gelling and go from there, but they’re taking everything on board and thriving at the moment.”