A trip to Herne Bay is a match the Sheppey management team are relishing.

The Ites are looking to get their league form back on track after successive weekend defeats, losing to Ramsgate and Margate inbetween a midweek draw at Merstham.

Those losses ended Sheppey’s six-game winning streak at the start of the Isthmian South East season.

They picked up three points against Littlehampton Town last night (Tuesday) with an impressive 2-0 win, playing most of the match with 10 men, and head down the coast this Saturday, hoping for a repeat of last season’s 2-1 win at Winch’s Field.

Assistant boss Geoff Record, speaking ahead of their midweek match, said: “We had a couple of magnificent games with Herne Bay last year, especially down there when we won. It was a brilliant end to end game.

“It is one of my former clubs, I have played for them and managed them and I always look forward to going back there.

“Myself and Ernie had time down there at the tail end of our playing careers and I went on to manage them for a few seasons. There are still people connected with Herne Bay that were connected with them 20 or so years ago.”

The two teams met at Holm Park a month ago in the Velocity Cup when Sheppey clinched a spot in round three after a penalty shoot-out win.

Tuesday’s home win over Littlehampton came courtesy of an own-goal midway through the first half and a Jacob Lambert effort on 71 minutes.

Eitel Goueth was shown a red card for a second bookable offence just 21 minutes into the game.

Sheppey were beaten 3-2 at home to Margate last Saturday, a defeat that stemmed from some defensive errors.

Record said: “We could and should have won against Merstham, we played reasonably well against them. But we’ve no complaints about the result on Saturday because we made three really poor errors defensively against Margate, which cost us the game ultimately.

“We scored two and gave it a go, there was effort and commitment and we tried to bounce back, but it’s very difficult. The lads stayed in the game but we just ended up running out of time.”

Ibrahim Olutade scored ether side of the break to put Margate two goals up before Sinnkaye Christie got one back for Sheppey. Olutade got a third but Danny Leonard’s reply for the Ites didn’t come until stoppage time.

Record said: “When you play one of the better sides in this league and hand them three goals, which is effectively what we did, it is very hard to get a result. The difference between the two sides was that they never made a mistake.

“In the first half we also struggled to hold the ball up, which means you can’t take the pressure off. We made three errors and it’s very hard when you do that.”

Losing to Margate followed that recent defeat against Ramsgate and Record knows they’re fighting for positions at the top end against some seasoned sides.

“It does need to be put into perspective,” he said.

“Margate managed to keep some of their National League players, especially the skipper (Harry Hudson) who is an absolute defensive rock and of course their player-manager (Ben Greenhalgh), what a skilful player he is.

“Many of our lads are still very young and learning and when you meet these teams full on, there’s a good chance you will come unstuck unless you can play out of your skin.

“You’re up against ex-pros, ex-National League players and with all due respect to our lads, we have got some great players, but they’ve not reached the dizzy heights that some of the lads have they’re up against.”