Nathan Elder believes Sittingbourne's friendly against an Arsenal XI has enhanced their reputation.

Bourne played out a goalless draw with the Gunners' community development side at Woodstock on Saturday.

It attracted a healthy crowd of 330 and showed the Brickies in a positive light.

Assistant manager Elder said: "Arsenal have a lot of strings to their bow in terms of the squads they've got.

"We know the manager of the community development side and we were really fortunate to play them, especially at our place, because a lot of teams want to play them.

"Arsenal is a huge brand and it's massive for our club to play them.

"People see that and think 'goodness me, that's a club that must be heading in the right direction if they're able to organise a friendly with such a big club'.

"It doesn't matter what type of side they brought down or the age group, they all play the same way, they have the same infrastructure and it was always going to be a good test.

"They were well-organised and passed the ball well but we gave a good account of ourselves and got the clean sheet we wanted."

Elder stressed it was a team effort but centre-half Lex Allan was among those to impress.

It's two years since Allan had trials with Milwall, Crystal Palace and Norwich, as well as being linked with other Premier League and Championship clubs.

Nothing came of the interest but Elder, who played in the Football League with Brentford and Brighton, can see the 20-year-old pushing on.

He said: "People sometimes forget how young Lex is.

"Being young, he's learning all the time and he's maturing very quickly.

"He has it in him to play in the Football League - 100%.

"The majority of our players have got that in them but it's early days and they need a bit of coaching to toughen them up in certain areas.

"I only started working with Lex last year but he's a humble young lad and I love that about him.

"When people are telling him he's done a good job it helps to be humble because he's always willing to go that little bit further."

Sittingbourne have trimmed their 28-man squad down to 24 and host Canterbury in their penultimate pre-season friendly tonight (Wednesday, 7.45pm).

Read more: The latest sports news in Kent