EAST Thurrock United manager John Coventry believes his team are potentially three wins from safety after beating Gosport Borough 5-1 on Tuesday.

Rocks were comfortable winners against the beleaguered Hampshire club, with braces from Sam Higgins and Reece Harris plus a late strike from Tom Wraight.

The result lifts Coventry’s side to 36 points in their first season in the National League South, after an indifferent start to the year in which they had conceded 11 goals in their last two matches.

And Coventry believes hitting the 45 point mark should be enough to keep them in the second tier of non-league football.

“It was a good performance and some very good goals were scored,” he said. “It was a win that we needed to get back on track, Gosport are not in a good way and it is a good time to play them but we still had to go there and do a job.

“We beat them by the same scoreline earlier in the season and they were good at the start of that game before we started to take charge.

“It is another sort of challenge when you go somewhere like Gosport where everything is so unsettled but we did well.

“The win takes us closer to that target of 45 points. We had an opportunity to get six against two sides who were near the bottom (Margate and Gosport) but the Margate game was postponed.

“But we still have to play them and we have done well in this one. We have some tough games coming up so we need to remain focused.”

Coventry is still looking for reinforcements after the departure of Joe Ellul to Billericay, with Lee Burns set to sit out the next fortnight because of injury.

Southend United youngster Abdul Salami made an assured debut for Rocks at Gosport but Coventry said he is looking to bring in defensive options this week.

“Abdul Salami came in and he did well for us,” said Coventry. “I am not sure how long he will be here but I believe he will be available until they need him.

“But I hope we will get more players in and soon. We still only had three substitutes on Tuesday.

“We need that experience and we have experience in certain positions. There is no-one better than Ben Wood in terms of experience while Sam Higgins has it at the other end of the pitch.”

Harris opened the scoring after three minutes on Tuesday before Gosport levelled.

However, Higgins soon restored the advantage from the penalty spot before both he and Harris added their second of the evening.

Wraight rounded off the win with a superb lob five minutes from time.