Manager Steve Lovell says he won’t be losing any sleep over Ramsgate’s FA Cup exit.

TJ Jadama gave Rams a half-time lead at lower-league Rusthall in Saturday’s preliminary round tie.

But the Southern Counties East side won 2-1 with a Louis Anderson free-kick and James White’s winner from a corner.

Lovell wanted to progress but is more concerned with learning lessons from the defeat going into a busy bank holiday weekend in Isthmian South East.

Rams, who have four points from two games after a goalless draw at Sittingbourne last Tuesday, visit Haywards Heath on Saturday and host Hythe on Monday (both 3pm kick-offs).

“I don’t want to lose any game, it’s always disappointing to lose, but I won’t be losing any sleep over it,” said Lovell.

“I wanted to continue the momentum we’d built up in the first couple of games but there were two or three boys who hadn’t played yet this season, so I thought I’d give them a run-out to see if they were fit enough to be in consideration for next week.

“They got through the game OK, so from a positive point of view I know what I’ve got to work with.”

Ramsgate’s defeat was nothing to do with Lovell’s selection - more a case of bringing about their own downfall with the goals conceded.

They were good value for their half-time advantage but allowed Rusthall back in the game.

“It was a game of two halves,” said Lovell. “First half, we had enough chances to win two or three games.

“We didn’t take them and their keeper made a couple of great saves.

“Second half, we huffed and puffed and we’ve given them a couple of goals.

“I said at half-time the only way Rusthall will win this is if we give it to them and unfortunately that’s what we did - it’s two mistakes.

“The first one is a free-kick on the edge of our box that we didn’t need to give away, and the boy’s bent it in, and the second one we’ve failed to pick up from a corner.

“They’re two goals we wouldn’t have conceded had we defended properly but fair play to them, they kept going and got a result.

“We’ll forget about it and move on to the league but we’ve got to learn not to give away silly goals.

“If you get the wrong side of someone, these things happen, but you can’t foul, you’ve got to let the people in front deal with it.”

Ramsgate gave a debut to new signing, former Sheppey defender Jahmal Howlett-Mundle as a second-half substitute.

But ball-playing midfielder Lucas Atkins, who’s joined on dual-registration from National South Welling, was left out, with Lovell deciding he’d be ineffective on a difficult pitch.

Howlett-Mundle and Atkins are available this weekend but the same can’t be said of several players who are away on holiday.

Jamie Coyle, Jack Paxman, Callum Peck and Callum Emptage are all away, while Jordan Chiedozie and Jack Richards have been out injured.

“We’ve got four boys away on holiday, which is ridiculous, really, but that’s the way non-league is,” said Lovell.

“People have got jobs and can only get away at certain times.

“It’s a bit annoying from mine and the club’s point of view but you can’t stop them because they’re entitled to their holidays. It’s just a shame it’s when the season’s started.

“We’ve got to get on with it and use the ones we have got.

“No one carries big squads at this level, not like in the Conference where you might have 23/24 players.

“In this league you have 16/17 and hopefully everybody’s available every week but that doesn’t always happen.

“It’s quite a tough thing to deal with this early in the season but once we get everybody back and fully together, we can go forward from there.”