Sheppey lost a scrappy FA Cup encounter at the weekend but boss Ernie Batten was pleased with how his side matched higher-ranked opposition.

Visitors Marlow had won both of their Isthmian South Central league games without conceding and maintained that form with a 1-0 win at Holm Park, courtesy of Junaid Bell’s 52nd-minute goal.

Marlow’s football wasn’t pretty and Sheppey ended up being bogged down in a stop-start game that saw visiting player Marcus Mealing sent off for two bookings just minutes after being introduced off the bench. They had five other players booked as they kept the referee busy.

Marlow wound down the clock in frustrating fashion and while Batten was gutted to have lost the first qualifying round match, his side still had chances to have progressed.

“They made it difficult to get anything going,” said the manager.

“I said to the boys at half-time, the first goal would be ever so important and it proved to be. We had chances in the first half to get that goal but in cup football, it is about taking chances isn’t it?

“It was a fairly even game, we gave a reasonably good account of ourselves without getting into our flow and I don’t think we were allowed to. They stopped us playing.

“That’s football, it’s not very exciting from a fans’ point of view, for us we want to play the game, whatever the score, whoever we play, we just want to get on with it and play our football and enjoy the game.

“The only way you can overcome it is to score a goal, if you go 1-0 up then they have every reason to get on with things.

“I wasn’t too downbeat afterwards, I thought the performance was reasonable, under the conditions we were playing in. They took one of their couple of chances, albeit a deflected shot, but we didn’t take any of the few chances we had.”