Manager Matt Barman was thrilled with the character shown by his young Lordswood team in Saturday’s 2-2 Southern Counties East Premier Division draw at Whitstable.

Town led just after the break at The Belmont courtesy of an own goal from former Whitstable under-18s skipper Archie Risdon, before forward Mason Morgan levelled.

There were eight minutes left when Ethan Stewart put Lords 2-1 up but James Jeffrey salvaged a point for the hosts in front of a 426-strong crowd.

Barman said: “Literally for the last five, six or seven games, we’ve been well and truly in the game - and then we’ve conceded a goal or two.

“The biggest thing from Saturday is we went a goal down and still came back.

"We’ve spoken to the boys about it quite often but they need to do it for themselves.

“Against Deal, Fisher and Phoenix, we have been well and truly in the game and, on Saturday, we competed in the game again.

“I think, in the backline, we had two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old.”

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Former Oystermen reserve-team manager Barman played down his Whitstable return.

He said: “It was okay. It was just another game.

“It was a good learning curve.

"But we have gone to Erith & Belvedere and scored three [in a 3-3 draw], and we were unfortunate not to win that as well.”

It’s not ideal for Lordswood’s youngsters to be involved in a relegation battle - but Barman vows to stick by youth and hopes, in the long run, it’ll pay dividends.

“I’m very happy with the squad,” he said.

“The one thing we lack majorly is experience but we have gone with youth over experience at this level.

"Hopefully, if we stay up, it serves us well.

“When these lads play at this level, they, sometimes, get only 30 minutes. But they get seven or eight games with us, and a good chance to express themselves.

“Even though we had a few tough results recently, we’re not going for wholesale changes. We believe in the lads that we have got.

“Experience is not about age, experience is about experience, and we’re learning on our feet at the moment.

“Our objective is to stay up.

"At some point, if we secure safety, we want to look at more under-18s and under-23s in our squad.”

Lordswood are well clear of the bottom two, but Barman said: “Although we don’t want to be looking over our shoulders, we need to keep distance between ourselves and them.

“We don’t want to get into the last couple of games [still with the threat of being relegated] with a young and inexperienced squad.

"But it will be what it will be.”

Lordswood will host Stansfeld this Saturday.

Barman said: “They will be a physical, strong side.

“It will be a challenge but one that we will look forward to.”