Skipper Tom Mills believes a second-placed finish still remains within Whitstable’s grasp.

The Oystermen are now out of all cup competitions this season after they lost 4-2 on penalties at home to Southern Counties East Premier Division rivals Bearsted in Tuesday’s Challenge Cup clash after a 1-1 draw.

While Erith & Belvedere are 20 points clear, only five points separate second-placed Rusthall and Stansfeld in seventh.

“That second spot is there,” said Mills. “I think they [Erith & Belvedere] are running away with it now.

“We’re up there in fourth but a lot of teams have a lot of games in hand. But a lot of those games are on Tuesday nights.

“Hopefully they can drop points and we can keep picking up points, starting on Saturday.”

On-loan Sheppey winger Jefferson Aibangbee put the hosts in front against Bearsted, only for Phil Headley to equalise from the spot before half-time after a controversial penalty had been awarded for handball.

The home team had their chances after the restart - Rodney Adamon-Eruotor seeing a left-footed curling shot cleared off the line and young on-loan Gillingham striker Ronald Sithole blazing over when clean through in the 75th minute - but they couldn't find a winner.

Mills reflected: “I thought we played well through the 90 minutes.

“They had their spells in possession but I thought we had more spells in possession towards the end of the game.

“Second half, our fitness was there. We had quite a few clear-cut chances that I thought we should have taken, to be honest, but it wasn’t to be, and we have gone out on penalties.

“You never know with them and we have come out the other end.”

• Whitstable player makes team-of-the-week

Bearsted scored all their kicks while Bears goalkeeper Tom Benham made two excellent saves to thwart defenders Will Thomas and Jake MacKenzie.

“I’ve not been in the final of this cup but Marcel [Nimani, his manager] has been and one of his objectives when he came in is that he wanted to get there,” Mills added.

There’s no shortage of experience in the Oystermen’s defence which includes Mills - who scored in last Saturday’s 4-1 league win over Glebe - centre-back partner Thomas, fans’ favourite MacKenzie and George Sheminant at left-back.

Their other goals against Glebe came through Victor Aiyelabola, Harry Gamble and James Jeffrey.

Ex-Maidstone and Margate man Mills said: “We have got Shems and Jake MacKenzie who are very good at one-on-one defending.

“It’s not our aim, really, to get our full-backs on as much. We aim to defend as a unit more. Myself and Will understand each other because we have played together for a while.

“As a side, if we can add a few more goals - I know we scored four on Saturday - but if we can take more chances, I can’t really see many teams breaking us down.”

This Saturday, fourth-placed Whitstable will host Stansfeld in the league.

It’ll be the third meeting between the sides this term after Stansfeld knocked Whitstable out of the Kent Senior Trophy before the Oystermen won 2-0 at Foxbury Avenue in Nimani’s first match.

“They’re a hard-working team,” said Mills. “We played them in Marcel’s first game and we looked very good.

"But we had played them the week before that in the cup and we struggled.

“It’ll be a tough test but I’m confident that we can pick up three points if we are at our best.”

Whitstable are looking for a goalkeeping coach to run sessions for keepers in their youth teams. Email football@whitstabletownfc.club for more information.

Mo Cham, Sam Fitzgerald and Michael Uwezu have recently departed the club.