Small Gasket pieces fell into lifter valley

Could be worse. My first motor 289 Ford. I had it all put together, mostly. I found this funny looking hexagonal shaft with an E-clip on it in the parts box. What's this? Ratz! That's the oil pump drive shaft! Motor was in the Ranchero already. I'll slide that E-clip off and drop it in throught the top. The distributor holds it on the top, the oil pump on the bottow. No worries. I had it just about there when it slipped from my oily fingers and PING. It went to the bottom of the oil pan. Wouldn't have been so bad if i hadn't used red Cat gasket sealer on BOTH sides of the pan gasket. I had to beat that sucker off with a punch and hammer. The old man laughed beer out his nose when I told him what I'd done.