Dereham manager Matt Henman insists there is no sense of gloom at Aldiss Park as the Magpies look to bounce back from their defeat to title rivals Mildenhall.

Henman's side were denied the chance to make swift amends for the 4-1 defeat when Saturday's Thurlow Nunn Premier Division match at Haverhill was postponed following last week's snow.

Dereham are hoping their Aldiss Park pitch thaws sufficiently to allow this weekend's clash with Stanway Rovers to go ahead – and Henman expects a positive reaction from his side.

'Our performance against Mildenhall was excellent and I don't think 4-1 reflected the game at all,' he said. 'We could easily have equalised and then maybe gone on to win the game, but what we did do wrong was concede sloppy goals and that is something we need to address.

'But I think with all the chances we are creating it is only a matter of time before we give someone a bit of a hiding.

'I would be more worried if we were not playing well, but if you look at the table, you could probably throw a blanket over the top six teams and say one of them will win the title and we are in that group.'

Henman did not rule out making additions to his squad before the end of the season, but said he has no immediate targets: 'We've got a healthy squad, probably as good as it's ever been at this stage of the season over the last four or five years,' he said. 'It (adding players) is something we will look at, but it's not essential and we're certainly not panicking.

'If we're going to add someone it needs to be a player who will improve what we have got. That is always the case, but we'll have a look and see who is around.'

Stanway held Dereham to a 2-2 draw in October, when the Magpies were forced to play part of the game with an outfield player in goal following an injury to Andy Wilton.

Henman said: 'It's always a tough game against them. We got a point in the away game against the odds really with our keeper injured – but that is only a good point if we get all three on Saturday.'

Wilton returns to the squad after missing the Mildenhall game, although Henman attached no blame for the defeat to his replacement, Matthew Powley: 'He's a good young keeper and he's done well when he's come in, so we'll need to decide who plays on Saturday,' he said.

Gary Starling is hopeful of returning after injury, while Jay Eastoe-Smith and Seamus Kelleher are both due to return to training.