Sheppey United beaten 4-2 by Herne Bay in midweek trip after opening Isthmian South East season with 4-0 win over Ashford United

Sheppey United are turning their attention to cup football, with back to back games at Holm Park.

The Ites kicked off their Isthmian South East season with an impressive 4-0 home win over Ashford United last Saturday but followed it up on Tuesday night with a 4-2 defeat at Herne Bay despite goals from Jacob Lambert and Rolando Onu.

Now the focus is on knockout football for the next two weeks.

Eastbourne Town are the visitors this Saturday in the FA Cup preliminary round, and the following week sees the visit of Hassocks in the FA Trophy preliminary round.

Osborne knows the benefits of a run in the cup.

“You always want to do well in the FA Cup,” he said.

“For one, the club can benefit financially and two, the club can get a bit of exposure.

“This Saturday’s game is a really big one for the players and the club, and it’s one that obviously we’re going to take very seriously and try our best.”

Eastbourne Town are from Sheppey’s own league, starting their campaign with a difficult 5-0 defeat at AFC Whyteleafe last weekend.

Sheppey’s win over Ashford last Saturday came after Lambert stuck twice. Onu got the third and Dan Bradshaw bagged the fourth

“It was very pleasing,” said Osborne. “Obviously, coming from behind to win against Met Police in the FA Cup (the week before) showed a little bit of character and then getting a win over a very strong Ashford team.”

Ashford had goalkeeper Taite Holtam sent off with Sheppey already 1-0 up - with striker Gary Lockyer taking over in goal for the remainder of the match.

“I thought they started very well,” admitted the Sheppey assistant manager.

“They had really good movement and were causing us problems but Jacob took his first goal very well. He still had quite a bit to do on his