Sheppey coach Peter Olliver laid the blame firmly at the door of his forwards after his side's 15-13 Kent 1 derby defeat by Sittingbourne.

The Sheppey pack played a big part in the club’s revival last season but it was a different story on Saturday, with Olliver saying: "If our forwards had turned up, we would have won comfortably.

"They were lazy and lacked sharpness when we were going through the phases.

"Fortunately, I videoed the game and I’m going to make them sit through some of it at training this week."

Boosted by their opening-match victory over Gillingham Anchorians, Sheppey went into the game with plenty of confidence.

But it was Sittingbourne who opened the scoring after 15 minutes with an unconverted try by centre Sam Catlin.

Sheppey, however, hit back hard with a superb team try finished off by Brad Box, with Box adding the conversion to put the home side 7-5 in front.

Box then added a penalty to extend Sheppey’s lead to 10-5 at half-time.

The match was certainly living up to expectations and Sittingbourne snatched the lead back at 12-10 early in the second half with a converted try after some poor defensive work by the home side.

Sheppey’s frustrations were becoming apparent as they gave away penalty after penalty and they had a let-off when Scott Truss struck the woodwork with one of his failed attempts.

But Sheppey finally managed to get back into the visitors’ half and Sittingbourne conceded a penalty which Box converted to put his side back in front 13-12.

Sheppey again switched off at a crucial moment, gifting Sittingbourne a penalty which they converted for 15-13.

Sheppey face an Ashford side on Saturday who are sitting on top of Kent 1 after winning both their opening games.