Saturday 13th April 2024.
Isthmian League Division One South East
Herne Bay 1 Sheppey United 2
Attendance. 582
Herne Bay: Harry Brooks, Tom Hanfrey (Daniel Carrington 46), Frankie Smith, Harrison Pont (Kayan Hassan 74), Liam Friend, Archie Burnett (Theo Osinfolarin 46), Gil Carvalho, Scott Heard, Michael Salako, Bola Dawodu, Kane Rowland.
Subs not used: Sam Wright, Finlay Whitton.
Scorer: Osinfolarin (66)
Yellow card: Burnett

Herne Bay had slipped to six points away from the top five with three games left, and would need a victory over eighth place Sheppey United to have any chance of keeping their play-off hopes alive. Bay had won three of their last four, but they had also won only four of their last ten, and it seemed their beginning of March form may have cost them dearly. The Ites play-off hopes were already over, but they had won three of their last four.

Steve Lovell: “You want to win every game. They will be out to try and beat us and, obviously, we have got to win to make sure that we take our season into another week. Football is a funny old game. We just have to keep going.”

Danny Walder would be out for the rest of the season with an Achilles injury and he was replaced by Bola Dawodu who returned from his dual registration with Lordswood.

The chance to make the play-offs became an even remoter possibility but things may, or may not, have been different if it had not been for the woodwork.

Both sides came out showing intent but on the balance of play it was the visitors who edged the first period in terms of play and scoring. In the 8th minute an Archie Burnett cross saw Sheppey’s keeper Aiden Prall slip and the ball went narrowly past the post. Scott Heard shot high and wide and a Harrison Pont strike was deflected for a corner. For Sheppey former Bay favourite Danny Leonard was showing his undoubted skills and he set up Jacob Lambert but Harry Brooks saved comfortably, and it was just as easy for the Bay stopper from a Lambert free-kick.

Leonard curled his shot but it came off the post, and Mike Salako sent Kane Rowland through on the right and he found Frankie Smith on the left but the attempt was blocked. Approaching the break Olamilekan Majoyegbe went free wide on the right and he slipped it past Brooks to give Sheppey the lead. Bay could have, and maybe should have, come back but Gil Carvalho’s low cross went straight across the goal and there was no-one there to make the most of it. The last chance of the half fell to Mike Salako, but he shot straight at the keeper. Brooks had certainly been the busiest of the two keepers with Prall hardly troubled.

In the second half Herne Bay were the stronger for the first 25 minutes. A Salako header went wide of the upright from a Gil Carvalho cross, substitute Theo Osinfolarin snatched his shot past the post and afterwards he laid the ball back to Heard and from his cross a Rowland header was put out for a corner by Prall. As Sheppey tried to slow things down Mamadou Diallo was booked for time-wasting at a throw-in. A Heard cross beat everyone and was tipped over the bar by Prall and after being set-up by Heard a Osinfolarin cross was headed onto the bar by Rowland. Rowland broke down the left flank and slipped it inside to Osinfolarin who looked like he had dillied and dallied too long but then curled the ball into the top left-hand corner and Bay were level.

A Frankie Smith slip on 70 saw Jerson Dos Santos through on goal but Brooks saved brilliantly from the one time Bay striker. Rowland went through but was thwarted by a last-ditch tackle by Majoyegbe. Then in the 78th came the decider. Leonard put Lambert through and he blasted past Brooks. Bay lost Pont to a head injury and he was replaced by Kayan Hassan who within four minutes of joining the fray rocked the crossbar from distance with a strike that was deserving of his first goal for the first team.

Herne Bay continued to battle and from a Osinfolarin cross, Prall gathered a Rowland header and a Dan Carrington cross was narrowly missed by the head of Salako.

Bay’s dreams of making the play-offs may be over but after last season’s debacle everyone at the club must be proud of what Steve and Mark Lovell, and the players have achieved.