Sheppey United boss Ernie Batten was left with plenty to ponder after his side lost out to fellow promotion chasers Chatham Town on Saturday.

Batten was looking to see just how good his men were and was left asking questions of his side, despite having won their previous seven games.

He said: “Sometimes in a defeat you learn something about what you need.

“I had been saying before, maybe we need this, maybe we need that and half thinking we probably do. But because of the run we had been on you don’t want to change it, you don’t want to upset the equilibrium of the squad.

“Because of what we had been doing, people deserved to play, you keep it going as long as you can but I did see a few things that individuals need to improve on or we need to go and get players that will do those jobs.

“There were one or two things I wasn’t happy with but maybe it’s because in certain areas we have got players playing out of position. We’ve had so much quality we’ve been able to knock teams over and it hadn’t mattered.

“I wanted to see where we were at and it was a good exercise in that respect.”

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Sheppey dropped back down to third in the Southern Counties East table after the defeat, losing ground on leaders Beckenham, who they face for the first time this season on Saturday, January 11.

Before that they host bottom side Greenwich Borough this Saturday – a side they put 10 goals past without reply in mid-November.

Greenwich beat Welling Town 4-3 last weekend with former Sheppey player Stephen Ita – who played five games for the Ites at the start of this season – scoring the winning goal.

Batten said: “One-nil would do us on Saturday. Get the points and then we go to Beckenham in a bit better fettle. We know these coming weeks are going to be big for us.

“You have to get points from the teams around you if you want to have a chance, that is what getting promotion is all about, winning big games.”

Sheppey might have lost ground on Beckenham this week but he sees his side still very much in the mix for the title.

“I see it the same as before the (Chatham) game,” he said.

“There is such a long way to go, we’re halfway through. We have learned a little bit on Saturday.

“We were playing against a quality side there and they had a good spell, we had good spells, but ultimately I thought we came up just a little bit short in one or two areas, that is what cost us in the end.”

Sheppey will be without right-back Chris Edwards after he limped off at the weekend with a thigh strain.

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