Sittingbourne vice-chairman Andrew Marjeram on the challenge of preparing for their FA Trophy quarter-final against Aldershot Town

A big effort behind the scenes has helped Sittingbourne get ready for their FA Trophy quarter-final.

Committee members and volunteers have worked round the clock to prepare for the visit of National League Aldershot this Saturday (12.30pm).

The club ran into an immediate problem with capacity at Woodstock limited to 1,300 on safety advice, so they arranged to stream the tie for those without a ticket.

There was the significant task of coordinating ticket sales and getting Woodstock ready for the biggest crowd in its history, including the segregation of 195 away fans.

“It’s been hard,” said vice-chairman Andrew Marjeram.

“We’d have loved more tickets but we’ve got to listen to the police and we’re so cautious about everyone’s safety.

“It’s a shame, because Aldershot would have loved more tickets, too, but what do you do? We’ve never been in this position before.

“We’ve never been sold out before and we were pretty much sold out in a day, which shows how far we’ve come.

“It was a tough one because we’ve got to look after the people who’ve been there through the not-so-good times as well, but we’ve got there, we think we’ve done it as fairly as possible.

“We’re streaming the game, we’ve opened new bars.

“We’ve been working a lot with sponsors because we need to order things like portaloos.

“People have come forward and volunteers have been great.”

Isthmian South East Sittingbourne have beaten six higher-league sides to reach the quarter-finals, including a 1-0 win at Southend in the last 16.

Another upset would leave them one round from Wembley.

“Hopefully we can do it and I’m quietly confident we can,” said Marjeram.

“It’s wonderful times at the minute, there’s a real buzz around the place and it’s good to see the whole