Paul Farbrace remains bullish about Kent’s Friends Life t20 qualifying hopes after admitting the 15-run defeat to Sussex Sharks was a "bad day at the office."

Friday’s defeat, coupled with wins on the same night for Surrey and Essex, relegated Spitfires to sixth spot in the ever-fluctuating South Group.

But, with just three points separating the five clubs tucked in behind runaway leaders Hampshire, Kent could still qualify for the quarter-finals by winning their final two matches.

Rob Key’s men are due to face Surrey Lions at the Kia Oval on Thursday, fresh from a narrow championship defeat to the same opposition, and travel to Chelmsford tomorrow to play Essex Eagles.

Both Kent’s opponents are also still in the running for a quarter-final spot and director of cricket Farbrace (pictured) admits it has now developed into a winner-takes-all situation.

He said: "The pattern of the group has shifted a bit but we can still qualify by winning the two games, at the Oval and Chelmsford. They’re both teams we’ve beaten already in this competition and we’ve got to fancy our chances."

Farbrace admitted Kent were "rough around the edges" against Sussex but he feels the squad are good enough to bounce back this week.

He added: "You need to be at your best to win games of Twenty20 cricket and I don’t think we were at our best by a long way against Sussex. It was a bad day at the office but we need to forget it and move one.

"We have played some good cricket over the past few weeks and that’s why I think we should still be confident about winning Thursday and Friday – they’re not games we should be scared of.

"We deserve to be up there and the good thing is that it’s in our hands."

Seamer Simon Cook looks set to miss out after tearing a nail off the middle finger of his bowling hand in practice for Friday’s match but Charl Langeveldt, who suffered a similar injury during the match, should play.

James Tredwell (hamstring) is also expected to be fit but fellow spinner Adam Riley faces a spell out after he broke a finger when he was hit by a drive from Alex Blake in the nets before the Surrey championship game.