Gary Abbott admitted he was frustrated as Sittingbourne surrendered a four-game winning run at Whitstable but is challenging his side to go on another.

A 93rd-minute strike from Jon Neal proved decisive on Tuesday but Abbott insisted it was a fair result.

"We didn’t deserve anything," he said. "We started slowly, didn’t keep the ball and it was so frustrating.

"Ryan Golding scored and gave us the lead but it would have been robbery had we won it.

"We’d won four on the spin but these runs always end. Now we have to go on another."

Sittingbourne travel to Arlesey for the preliminary round of the FA Trophy tomorrow (Saturday), a competition Abbott is looking forward to.

"The league is the main one but the FA Cup and FA Trophy are massively important," he added. "We’re out the FA Cup and that still hurts – hopefully we can put that right and get at least get a draw at Arlesey so we can take them back to our place."

Hicham Akhazzan will miss the tie with a knee injury while Tom Bradbrook (pictured) is away.

"Tom’s a big loss," said Abbott. "We’ll have to change things round and maybe I’ll keep the same formation and put Dion Monaghue up with Golding."