Goalkeeper Tom Benham will have left the field cursing his mistake that gave Faversham Town the only goal of this local derby.

But, to be fair, every one of his Sittingbourne colleagues made a mistake or two – a misplaced pass or a mistimed tackle – it’s just that goalkeeper errors are more exposed than everybody else’s.

Not that Sittingbourne played badly, in fact their first half performance was among their best 45 minutes of the season.

But they didn’t convert some good moves into goals and ended the game looking a bit one-dimensional with Lewis Chambers’ massive long throws their chief weapon.

But Faversham, with their twin centre-halves both ex-Brickies, were exemplary at keeping them out and winning the aerial challenges, and Sittingbourne’s second half play never matched up to the earlier stuff.

Sittingbourne made five changes from the team that lost to Bognor Regis in the FA Cup the previous week, Roman Campbell, Chris Barnard, Abdul Ndew and Kane Phillip returning, with Ben Fitchett coming straight in after rejoining the club the previous day.

He lined up in an all-pigtailed central midfield alongside Chambers, having played in defence throughout his previous spell at the club.

In pleasant September sunshine, Sittingbourne made a positive start and threaded together some impressive build-ups with Campbell’s quick-footed hold-up play excellent and Tommie Fagg popping up all over the place in a very hard-working display.

Fagg had a powerful shot deflected wide, Phillip volleyed an early chance over, Campbell so nearly got to a couple of headed chances, Fitchett forced a comfortable save out of keeper Watkins, and Jason Fregene, outstanding otherwise, put his shooting chance out of the ground.

It was all Sittingbourne, winning the ball back all over the pitch, with Faversham restricted to the odd breakaway, Benham making a good save at the end of one of them.

But it all went horribly pear-shaped at the end of the first half when Fregene played a back pass to Benham. He looked as if he didn’t realise how much time he had, and tried to kick it out first time. It skewed off his foot, straight to Faversham’s Adesite just a few yards away, and he seemed almost embarrassed at having the opportunity to put it straight into the empty goal.

Faversham had been dominated in the first half but they turned it around after the break and worked altogether harder to keep Sittingbourne out and preserve their lead.

Benham was probably the busier of the two keepers, making a couple of good saves, while at the other end, sub Enoch Adeji created an opening but shot straight at the keeper, Lex Allan had a headed chance saved and a powerful Chambers effort was headed out for a corner by the mighty Matt Bourne.

So a second successive game for Sittingbourne without scoring, and in all honesty a pretty disappointing result. The fans were once again unstinting in their support, and at least the team played well for half a game and kept plugging away for a whole one. Next up it’s Ashford away, so things won’t get any easier.

Faversham Town: Luke Watkins, Donvieve Jones, Jamie Maxted, James Miles, Matt Bourne, Josh Dorling, Michael Freiter (Robert Lawrence, 82 min), Mitchell Chapman, Max Morgan (Jack Sellens, 76 min), Anthony Adesite (Rolandu Onu, 87 min), Ryan Khanye (Yellow card).

Subs not used: Steven Mills, Harry Earls.

Goals: Adesite 44

Sittingbourne: Tom Benham, Abdul Ndew (Johan Caney-Bryan, 68 min), Jason Fregene, Lewis Chambers, Lex Allan (Yellow card), Cory Walters-Wright, Kane Phillip (Enoch Adjei, 57 min), Ben Fitchett (Tyrone Guthrie, 57 min), Roman Campbell, Tom Fagg, Chris Barnard (Yellow card).

Subs not used: Lewis West, Festus Lori.

Referee: Mr C Pullen;

Assistants: Mr W James, Mr R Mortimer

Attendance: 312