Sheppey United are hoping first-choice keeper Aiden Prall hasn’t done too much damage after coming off injured on Saturday.

Prall’s early exit from the pre-season game at Faversham Town led to a headache for the club’s management team as they had no back-up keeper on hand - leading to some frantic calls and an appearance in goal for their analysis assistant.

Second-choice stopper Hadley Glock wasn’t available for the match due to personal issues but answered the call for assistance to play in the second half of the game that Faversham won 4-1. In between that, Tyler Ross gave an admirable performance between the sticks as emergency cover.

Prall was awaiting a scan on his shoulder this week. His loss would be a big blow for the Ites.

Assistant boss Darren Blackburn said: “In pre-season all you want is to get your players through 90 minutes, get their minutes up, it’s the same for every manager.

“Nobody cares about results at this stage, it is nice to win games and get in a habit, but we lost Aiden after 10 minutes and that’s a big loss - not just in the game but he is such a big part of our back line.

“We lost Aiden not long after conceding what was a pretty sloppy goal. A cross shouldn’t have been allowed to come in and there was a free header at the back post.

“Maybe it’s down to a bit of rustiness, a lack of sharpness in pre-season, but you would be disappointed to lose a goal like that in the season.

“After that I think mentally it was an uphill battle. Aiden tried to carry on after a heavy fall but felt he couldn’t and it was the right thing to do for him to come off, we didn’t want to make it any worse. It was sensible to take him off.

“Unfortunately on the morning of the game we’d lost our no.2 goalkeeper (Glock), so young stand-in Tyler, who usually helps with the warm-up, got kitted up and has gone in there until half-time. He did a great job and we were really grateful to him.

“That would have been daunting in any situation, especially facing the quality of opposition he did.

“We were able to get Hadley Glock down, who has been no.2 in training with Aiden. Fair play to him for coming down.”

It proved a tough afternoon for the Ites as they ended up conceding four and finishing the match with 10 men after one of their trialists got injured with all of the substitutes used.

Blackburn said: “Faversham are an outfit full of experience, step four and three players, one or two could play higher. Good luck to (manager) Tommy (Warrilow) and the boys.

“Tommy has a good team there, he’s a good manager. I am sure they will be up there and I hope they get promoted.

“We are still trying to work things out and it was good minutes for a lot of the lads, overall just disappointing to lose the goalkeeper and there’s a horrible wait to see exactly how the injury is and how he is feeling.

“He is an absolute solid goalkeeper, his feet are very good, good presence, he’s a nice lad, he would be tough to replace even for a few games. The lads in the back line have confidence in him.

“Looking at our squad it’s going to be very different than it was last season as things stand, there have been some changes, and with that will come some teething problems.

“It was a good test on Saturday and for some of the boys it was a bit of a wake up call.

“Results have been frustrating in pre-season but the fans have been really good, they have been patient and I think they understand.

“They can see there is a little bit of a rebuild that has had to go on. It will take time but we will get there.”

The Ites, with a trialist goalkeeper in their team, won 2-1 away at Rochester United last night (Tuesday) and host Bowers & Pitsea on Saturday (3pm).