Sittingbourne defender Harrison Pont wrote himself a page into the Club’s folklore by coming off the bench to save a penalty from Adebayo Akinfenwa who is now playing for Faversham Town.

“Still seems a bit surreal to be honest,” the reluctant hero admitted to KSN after everything had sunk in.

“Harley unfortunately gave the penalty away and hurt himself. The Gaffer looked round the bench asking who wants to go in goal, and I said I could as got no problem with going in.”

There’s going into goal, but there’s going in to face a spot kick to be taken by the larger than life legend that is Bayo Akinfenwa. What followed will live with the young defender, who is a self-confessed Gillingham fan, forever.

Pont then confessed, “To be fair to the Gaffer and the coaching staff, they told me which way to dive! In my head I was going to dive to my right originally, but they said “No, we think he’ll go left!” So I went with them – dived to my left and saved it!”

“I didn’t want to go too early – I saw him do a little step to see if I was going to dive early but I stood my ground and as soon as he kicked it, I went my way, put both hands out and I’m going to say that it was pure luck that I saved it to be honest!”

Pont said with a huge smile on his face, “the unlikely hero, I guess! But then it’s football and those sorts of things happen don’t they?”

The win – courtesy of Joe Tyrie’s first half goal – means that Faversham face a real mountain to stay in the division whilst for the Brickies, they are now five points ahead of the final relegation Play Off zone.

“The season before COVID I played for Faversham with James Collins and the fans were giving me some stick when I was warming up and then I’ve gone and saved the penalty in the last minute!”

“Being a Gillingham supporter, Bayo is one of my Gills heroes and I’ve just saved a penalty against him! I’ve been told that the last “goal” he scored was at Wembley and I’ve just saved it…”

It’s been tough for the young defender in the past few weeks as since Ryan Maxwell arrived at Sittingbourne, their back line has conceded just eight goals in fourteen games – a fact that Pont accepts.

“Maxy has brought in a lot of players and there’s a lot of competition for places around the club,” he said, “if you have one slip up, it could cost you your place in the side and then you’ve got to be patient in getting back into the squad, which is what I’m doing at the moment.”

“I’m doing all I can at training, but so are all the other boys on the bench, which is why we’ve got such a competitive squad, it’s tough to get into that starting eleven.”

“This win puts up to twelfth in the table, but we know it’s still tight to the relegation Play Off places – there’s still that possibility so we’ve still got to do all we can on and off the pitch to ensure that we stay in this League.”