Sheppey United winger and skipper Danny Leonard sees no reason why they should fear his higher-ranked former team Dartford.

The two sides meet at Holm Park tonight (Tuesday, 7.45pm) in the fourth round of the Velocity Cup and it’s the first time Leonard has got to face his former team since making a return to Sheppey in 2022.

Leonard joined The Ites from Dartford ahead of the 2022/23 season for an undisclosed fee. He’s enjoyed the move back to Sheppey and took on the captaincy this season.

“It is exciting,” said the winger, ahead of tonight’s cup clash. “Dartford was a club that gave me that chance to play at a higher level and I will always be grateful for it.

“I have had so many messages from people saying how great it will be for them to see me, thanking me for what I did at Dartford, and that’s nice.

“There aren’t many players, or management, there now from when I was there but it will be nice to play them.”

The Ites are in good form in Isthmian South East, moving into the play-off places on Saturday after a 1-0 win over Eastbourne Town. Before that game, they beat Margate 4-2 in the last round of the Velocity Cup.

Dartford have found some form themselves - eight unbeaten ahead of the midweek cup clash - but Leonard is confident they have enough quality to get a result.

He said: “Everyone seems to think the pressure is on them but I don’t know if it is, they are a higher league club but when I was there we were three divisions apart. Now we’re near the top of our league and they are mid-table in theirs.

“I don’t think there is that much difference. No disrespect to them, but I don’t think they are pulling up any trees this year, they are more than beatable, especially with us playing at home.

“I said to the boys before last week (at Margate), it is definitely a game where we can win. It’s not like in the past where we’ve played Billericay or Merthyr in the FA Cup where we didn’t expect to win, this time it feels like it is quite even.

“It’s no disrespect to them, they are still a massive club, I don’t think they should be where they are with the set-up they have and some of the players they’ve got but judging on what people have said this season or some of their results - and I know they have picked up a bit recently - there is no reason we can’t do a job on Tuesday.”

Sheppey beat Margate 4-2 at Hartsdown Park in last Tuesday’s third round tie - thanks largely to a quickfire hat-trick from Gil Carvalho.

The Ites had lost to Margate 3-2 at home in their league encounter in October.

Leonard said: “We were gutted about the game in the league because it was quite an even game and the goals that they scored, they didn’t really have to work that hard for them when we look back at them. There were things we could have done to prevent them quite easily.

“Fair play, they won the game, but it could have been a draw, we could have won it. To then go 1-0 down in the cup game was hard for us, they had one-up on us with the league game and then go 1-0 up in the cup, it was backs against the wall, but we scored goals in quick succession in the second half and dominated the game in periods.”