Sheppey United’s FA Cup journey sees them take on a side boasting to be ‘South Wales’ premier non-league team’ - but Ernie Batten’s men fear nobody.

The Ites head to Wales on Saturday for the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round tie as the underdogs - facing a Merthyr Town side who are riding high in Southern Premier South, a league that’s one step above Sheppey in the football pyramid.

Batten’s men are fresh from a 2-1 FA Trophy victory over Swale rivals Sittingbourne and full of confidence ahead of the long trip to Merthyr’s Penydarren Park.

“It will be an early start but that’s the magic of the FA Cup,” smiled the Ites boss, as he looked ahead to the cup challenge.

“Hopefully we can win the game, I don’t see any reason why we can’t.

“I know they have knocked out higher-league opposition but we have done that in the past and I am quite confident we will do it again.”

Saturday’s game will end a month that has seen Sheppey compete in four different cup competitions, as the league campaign has taken a backseat. Their last match in Isthmian South East was a 2-2 draw at Sittingbourne on August 28. They’re unbeaten in their first three league games.

They’ve lost to Beckenham in the Kent Cup and Herne Bay in the Velocity Cup but progression in the money-spinning FA competitions has continued.

The win at home to Sittingbourne on Saturday in the FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round came courtesy of goals from Jacob Lambert and Josh Wisson, either side of the break. Javaun Splatt got one back as the Brickies improved in the second half.

Watched on by a crowd of 550, Batten was impressed with his side’s early dominance and the brand of football they played.

Speaking afterwards on the club’s YouTube channel, Batten said: “I always think that if you are entertaining people and they enjoy what they are seeing then they will come back and pay for it again, that is what we intend to do and what we’ll keep doing.

“I am particularly happy with the style we are adopting week in, week out now, and the way we are trying to play football.

“I say to the lads, you can always try to play, you need to be brave, we showed bravery, kept calm against a decent Sittingbourne side but we showed against a side like that, that we can still play that brand of football and win a game.

“I thought we played exceptionally well in the first half, a lovely brand of football which I was really pleased to see.

“I’ve talked to the boys about making sure we believe in what we’re doing and every single game, we want to play this way, it’s exciting. We’ve got the wide players and I lost count of the number of crosses we put in first half and could have gone in two or three up.

“Sittingbourne had a good spell in the second half, which we were expecting, against good sides you can’t expect to be dominant right the way through games, they are always going to have a spell. I thought we rode it out well and in the end we deserved the win.”