Tim O’Shea reckons his Croydon Athletic side are far from the finished article after the Rams could only manage a 1-1 draw at bottom side Eastbourne Town on Saturday.

An injury-time equaliser saw the Rams slip to third in the early Ryman Division One South running.

O’Shea said: “We are still a pretty new squad and we are still not playing as consistently as I would have hoped.

“But it has been a decent start and things are going okay.

“We have played seven games and got 14 points and as a manager you cannot really ask for much more than two points a game.

“If we do that for the rest of the season we will be up there, so there is no need to worry just yet.”

Gary Noel gave Croydon the lead with his ninth goal of the season at Eastbourne and the Rams were then made to pay for failing to kill off the game.

O’Shea added: “Eastbourne’s keeper was man of the match and made three or four world-class saves. We created enough chances and we could have won comfortably.

“It was a shame we could not hold on and galling their equaliser was due to an error.”

Athletic are without a game this weekend because Walton & Hersham are still in the FA Cup.

“To have two weeks off at this stage of the season beggars belief in my opinion,” said O’Shea.

“The weather is about to turn and matches will be called off all over the place, yet we could not arrange anything for this weekend. “It is annoying, but we will just have to get on with it.”

Croydon Athletic’s next three matches: Oct 3 Bury Town (FAT, h), 6 Walton & Hersham (h), 10 Merstham (h).