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Sheppey United keeper Aiden Prall boasts an impressive clean sheet record but there’s one blot that the team get a chance to avenge this Saturday.
Play-off chasing Sheppey surprisingly lost 6-0 at Three Bridges in late November and they get an opportunity to right some wrongs at Holm Park when the teams meet again.
Both sides are chasing a top-five place this season, with Three Bridges just ahead of the Ites in the Isthmian South East table, meaning plenty is riding on this fixture.
“We most definitely owe them one,” said Prall, who kept a 13th shutout last Saturday at leaders Ramsgate.
“Three Bridges away has always been my bogey team, I think in the three times I have been there I have conceded 14-odd goals, and so we have to put it right on Saturday.
“Lekan Majoyegbe got sent off very early on (after just 23 minutes) down there and we got into half-time 2-0 down. It’s a hard one, we could have tried to keep the score respectable, but when you are trying to get three points and losing already, we went for the win but in doing so the floodgates opened at the other end. It was a Tuesday night and I was thinking, ‘Just get me home!’
“That result should give us an extra few per cent going into the game.”
The Ites did respond well from that defeat, going nine games unbeaten to put them right in the play-off mix.
They showed how solid they can be defensively at the weekend with a goalless draw at the division’s top scorers Ramsgate, ending the table-toppers’ 100% home league record. Only AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup had denied them a goal this season.
Former Charlton youth keeper Prall said: “They’ve got a very talented squad, with a lot of strength, so to keep a clean sheet was very good.
Isthmian South East table
“There aren’t many games where we haven’t scored, even Walsall we managed to nick a goal.
“We do pride ourselves on our attacking and fluid football, the attackers we have in the team are incredible and pretty much all of them could go on and play higher, but we are doing just as well at the back.
“At the start of the season you set yourself targets, the previous season we kept 12 clean sheets, so to have beaten that already is very good and I am hoping, touch wood, we try and get to 20 by the end of the season.”
Sheppey handed a debut to American-born midfielder Zach Dainkeh on Saturday, the former Walton & Hersham and Erith & Belvedere player starting the match. He’s another who began his career in the youth ranks at Charlton, a couple of years behind Prall.
“To put him in straight away against Ramsgate is credit to his ability and what he has to offer and I thought he came in and did very well,” said Prall.
“He impressed in training and carried that into Saturday.”
Dainkeh picked up a knock in the win and will need to be assessed before the weekend.
