Rovers bowed out of the FA Trophy at the first attempt, going down 2-0 at Isthmian South East promotion favourites Sittingbourne on Saturday.
Darren Salmon and Lee Flavin made eight changes to the side that had narrowly lost away at Ascot Utd the previous Saturday, with debuts handed to young keeper Kacper Orlowski, Ryan Khanye, Evangelos Empochontsif, whilst there were first starts for Danyaal Iqbal and Bradley Manning and recalls for Darnell Bromfield, Nahum Melvin-Lambert and Osaretin Otete.
Skipper Matt Tanton, Keiron Wright, Noah Africa and Adam Aziz were all on the treatment table, whilst Kwabena Osei, Timmy Obisanya and Cam Dobell dropped to the bench; keeper Dion-Curtis Henry was not selected.
With all the changes it was unsurprising that the hosts made the brighter start and on nine minutes, after neat build up, a shot from Troy Howard crashed against our post before being cleared by Bertie Lloyd, and a few minutes later a low shot by Henry Sinai flashed across the face of our goal.
We were under the cosh a bit, and on 25 minutes a deep cross by Sinai was met by Howard but his header went just over the bar. Our first chance came just shy of the half hour, Otete did well on the left and his chipped ball into the area found Nahum Melvin-Lambert and although he initially got beyond Harley Earle, the keeper recovered well to make the save. Shortly after and Tyrese Osbourne and Jayden Smith linked up, with Smith’s low ball into the area being cleared.
Sittingbourne should have taken the lead on 36 minutes, a great ball down the line by Jack Steventon found Jay Beckford and with great feet he raced clear of our backline before finding Mitchell May, who inexplicably fired wide when well placed.
As the half drew to a close Melvin-Lambert had a couple of decent chances to put us ahead, but having seen one bundled behind for a corner, he was denied the second time by a tidy save by Earle and half time came scoreless.
We started brightly in the second half and Melvin-Lambert headed an early chance wide, before the Bricks struck the opening goal on 49 minutes. Sinai got beyond Bradley Manning and although we looked to have cleared the danger, the recycled ball found Cody Cosgrave who put the hosts ahead, and almost immediately Ryan Kingsford fired wide as the Bricks looked to force home the advantage.
Melvin-Lambert saw an effort blocked by Earle on 57 minutes and debutant SCR keeper Kacper Orlowski saved well from Steventon’s header at a corner.
Beckford did well to beat Manning and delivered the ball to Cosgrave but his shot went over the bar. Into the last ten minutes and Richie Hamill found Cosgrave but again Orlowski was up to the task. Kingsford saw a strike deflected wide as the game drifted into it’s final minutes, before the win for Sittingbourne was sealed in the 97th minute. Sittingbourne were eventually awarded a penalty and despite Orlowski’s best efforts, Hamill crashed it home to put the Bricks into the next round.