Corinthian manager Michael Golding had no complaints as his side lost to Sheppey in the Kent Senior Trophy final on Tuesday night.

They broke the deadlock when midfielder Jack Mahoney found the net on 13 minutes but Ernie Batten’s Ites led 2-1 at half-time following a Warren Mfula double.

After the restart, Corinthian pushed for an equaliser and had promising spells, but they couldn’t find a way through and fell to a 3-1 loss as defender Ryan Sawyer put through his own goal in the dying moments.

“It didn’t really happen for us to be honest,” conceded Golding. “I think Sheppey were worthy winners.

“I thought they won all the individual battles, they probably looked a little bit more up for it, and we have got no qualms with the result whatsoever.

“It was just disappointing for our small band of supporters and volunteers that we couldn’t get it over the line.

“But like I say, Sheppey were more than worthy winners of the game.”

• Match report: Corinthian 1-3 Sheppey

Mfula may have struck twice but some stunning saves by Corinthian keeper Aiden Prall did stop him from getting a hat-trick.

“Aiden is capable of that. He is a great lad,” said Golding as Corinthian’s long wait for silverware goes on.

“I’m always on at him about being better and consistency in his game but, you saw with a couple of those saves, that’s what he is capable of.

“We’ve not had to rely on him too many times this season. Defensively we have been quite sound but, on Tuesday, we were poor.

“But he is a great goalkeeper and he will go on and play at a decent level in non-league, he will go on to bigger and better things. But he is getting a grounding here.

“He has played 200 first-team games now and he will take that onto the levels he will undoubtedly get to.”

Corinthian now play in Isthmian South East and are 11th in their debut season at that level.

But Golding explained: “Having for the last three years won 90 per cent of your games, when you go into a division and you are not winning every week, it’s quite tough psychologically.

“Personally, it was quite tough to not just be winning all the time. But the step up has been a breath of fresh air, it has been unbelievable.

“Everything is better at Step 4 than it is at Step 5 - the people, the clubs, the management teams, the players, and it’s been brilliant pitting our wits against that.

“We are probably slightly behind where we felt we could be but on the face of it, a team that has come up and are in the middle of the table, when you look at the size of some of the clubs at the bottom-end of the division, I think we have got to be relatively pleased with what we have done so far.”

Corinthian will visit Whitehawk this Saturday.