Aiden Prall shone in the national spotlight in the First Round of the FA Cup - and the Sheppey goalkeeper admits the experience has left him hungry for more.

Prall was named player-of-the-match with their 4-1 home defeat to League 2 Walsall shown live on television on Friday night.

The 25-year-old did his reputation as one of Isthmian South East’s best keepers little harm despite conceding four times, albeit the Saddlers’ fourth came in controversial fashion, as he made several top saves.

Prall came through the youth ranks at Charlton before he was released. But he has since found his feet in senior football, initially at Corinthian and now with The Ites.

“I have always backed myself to be the best in the league,” said Prall, who would relish a higher-division move if it was to materialise. “You’ve got to do that as a player.

“If you don’t have confidence in yourself, no one else is going to.

“Personally, I would like to try and push on, and play in the National Leagues and play in front of those sorts of crowds every week. Getting the attention of being on TV and from the rest of the media, that’s what everyone dreams of.

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“But you can only do as well as you can. If you turn up on the right day when there’s someone watching you, then you get your move.”

More than 90 places separate Sheppey and Walsall in the football pyramid. Prall knew he was always going to have an eventful night.

He said: “I was always going to be busy. At the end of the day, me and the boys have given everything.

“Players have chucked themselves at the ball and you can only do as well as you can. Coming into the game, it’s a whole different atmosphere with the cameras here and the crowd.

“It was an incredible experience and I think we have done ourselves proud.”

Prall denied playing in front of the television cameras gave him extra motivation to perform.

“The cameras were out so I had to try and do something,” he initially joked. “We said as a group that, at the end of the day, you’re just playing another football game.

“It’s 11 blokes versus 11 blokes. Whoever plays well on the day, nine times out of 10, they’re the winners.

“Once the game gets going and everyone settles in, you forget that the cameras are there.

“When the guy is lining up a shot from the edge of the box, I’m not thinking ‘The cameras are on me’ sort of thing. But when the ball goes out for a corner down the other end, you do look around and go ‘This is unbelievable’ - you can see the cameras everywhere and that’s really cool.

“But I wouldn’t say that gives you an extra five per cent. You go into every game, trying to give your best.”

And he felt Walsall’s second goal, scored by away midfielder Tom Knowles eight minutes after the restart, showed the difference between the professional side and the part-time Ites.

“The best way to put it is that, for their second goal, he has hit it from 20 or 25 yards and absolutely wrapped it into the bottom corner,” he explained. “If you gave him 10 balls, he probably does that eight times.

“Whereas obviously, as you drop down the leagues, players aren’t as consistent. Definitely the physical aspect of it - they train every day, have personalised gym sessions - that’s what is levels above.

“You look at all of their players and don’t think with any of them ‘He’s slow’ - all of them are 6ft, all of them are quick and all of them are strong. How they move the ball and play quick one-twos across 15 or 20 yards is where the biggest difference is.

“But that’s what you expect with a team that is training every day and having personalised gym sessions.

“In terms of shots, anyone can hit a ball hard. It’s the accuracy of it which improves the higher up you go.”

With Prall and the rest of Sheppey’s resilient defence initially keeping Walsall at bay, they even briefly led when winger James Bessey-Saldanha netted a superb first-half goal.

It was a first competitive goal this campaign for Bessey-Saldanha and Prall revealed: “What a strike! He has been getting some stick, to be fair.

“I think his last goal was against Gillingham in pre-season and it was pretty similar. But he hadn’t scored a goal since.

“We had been giving him some heat but he said he was saving it up.”

But Walsall equalised before half-time through Douglas James-Taylor and then took control in the second period thanks to goals from Knowles and Ross Tierney.

The Midlands club added a late fourth through prolific midfielder Isaac Hutchinson, although the home contingent were insistent the goal should have been disallowed for a foul on Prall.

“I don’t know how the ref hasn’t given it as a foul,” added the tree surgeon.

“He said to me after the game that I didn’t have control of it. But I said ‘I couldn’t have control of it because the geezer smashed me.’

“In fairness to the geezer who went for it, he came up to me after the game. He doesn’t know how it wasn’t given as a foul!

“He didn’t think I was there. If he saw that I was there, he wouldn’t have gone for it.

“But people make mistakes. It happens. It wasn’t going to change the result, so you can’t look back on it and be too disheartened.”

Prall also thanked opposite number Owen Evans for giving him his matchday shirt.

Asked if he would watch the game back, he replied: “I made sure my mum recorded it. Thankfully, their goalkeeper (Evans) gave me his shirt after the game. That was really kind of him.

“I’ll put it into a frame and stick it somewhere in the house.”

Isthmian South East Sheppey return to league matters against bottom side Beckenham tonight.