Darren Blackburn felt Sittingbourne ran out of ideas as a challenging spell caught up with them.

The Brickies’ six-match unbeaten run ended with a 4-1 defeat at Burgess Hill on Saturday.

They were unable to fill their bench, naming only three substitutes, with the sole positive a debut for under-18 midfielder Will Oliver.

Harry Stannard drew the visitors level, having trailed inside two minutes, but Burgess Hill ran out comfortable winners as Bourne dropped to ninth in Isthmian South East.

“We got back into the game, then it just drifted away from us,” said boss Blackburn, whose side host Herne Bay on Good Friday (1pm) and visit Sevenoaks on Easter Monday (3pm).

“We ran out of steam, we ran out of ideas, we ran out of energy.

“We’ve had a lot to manage over the last six or seven weeks, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes, we’ve made some financial adjustments, and I think it caught up with us.

“It doesn’t have an impact to start with but the longer you go on it does, especially when you have injuries and players not available.

“We’ve not got the strength in depth we had earlier in the season and the results we’ve had recently have probably papered over the cracks, where the lads have done so well.

“Those cracks, those fragilities, they are there but you don’t see them when you’re picking up results.

“Saturday highlighted them and a few bad habits crept back in but that’s done and we’ve just got to move on.

“We’d gone six games unbeaten, which is our best run of the season, we’ve proved people wrong all season and hopefully we can do it again in our last three games.”

Blackburn likes the look of Oliver, who was introduced as a 53rd-minute substitute for goalscorer Stannard.

He let nobody down in a difficult game to come into.

“We gave Will his debut, which was nice for him,” said Blackburn. “It’s a shame we couldn’t get him involved in a better result but it was good experience for him.

“He’s a good player, technically very good and he’s done well for the under-18s and picked up a few goals for them.

“I think he was with Gills when he was younger - he left a year or two ago - and he’s a player with potential.”

Blackburn feels it might be a case of trying to outscore Herne Bay when the sides meet at Woodstock on Good Friday.

Bay climbed back into the play-off places at Ramsgate’s expense on Saturday and have plenty of attacking talent.

“It’s hard to call who’s going to get that last play-off place but I’ve always thought Herne Bay, on balance, have probably got the stronger squad.

“They’ve invested heavily and if they get in the play-offs, they’ll deserve it.

“If you stop them scoring, you’ve done well. We’ve probably got to score two or three on Friday to win that game - that’s how I feel.”

Easter Monday opponents Sevenoaks have moved out of the bottom three under new boss Harry Hudson and are set to provide a stern test.

“They’re absolutely flying, like I thought they would once Harry went in there, especially on their 3G,” said Blackburn.

“He had Whyteleafe playing really good football on 3G when he was in charge there, and he was always going to do the same at Sevenoaks.

“He knows a lot of players and has good contacts.”