Trophy Hopes Still Alive

Trophy Hopes Still Alive

Herne Bay (0) 0

Merstham (0) 0

Attendance: 208

FA Trophy Preliminary Round
Saturday 5th October 2013
at Winch’s Field

by Ray Kelly

Herne Bay must replay this F.A.Trophy match against Merstham on Tuesday night following a nerve sapping goalless draw at Winch's Field on Saturday. One plus to emerge from this game was a Captain’s performance from the Bay goal keeper Jack Delo who produced a string of great saves throughout the match and solid performances from the Connor Saunders /Steven Lloyd partnership in the middle of the Bay defence. This was a lack lustre performance from the Bay side and at times it seemed to lack any cohesion in the middle of the park.

Throughout the match Mestham’s Taureen Roberts ran the show with his speed, skill and a willingness to go the extra mile for his team and had he had his shooting boots on he would have surely scored a hat trick.
Highlights of the game from the Herne Bay point of view were very limited only managing to get the ball on target 3 times during the entire match. For the first 15 minutes the Bay looked quite confident going forward with chances falling to Joe Nelder who headed over from a Danny Walder free kick and a Steven Lloyd header from a Connor Saunders long throw that the Merstham ‘keeper Brannan
Daly took well. For the rest of the half it was the Taureen Roberts show who ran the Bay defence ragged and only timely interventions from Gary Sayer and Steven Lloyd prevented Roberts from getting on the score sheet. At times there seemed to be 3 or 4 no.11s on the pitch for Mertsham such was his influence. By the end of the half Jack Delo was the most overworked player on the Bay side.

The second half was only 5 minutes old when Jack Delo superbly saved a rasping shot from Greg Andrews and 2 minutes later Nathan Eastwood cleared off the line after a shot from Roberts.
On the hour mark both Managers made changes with Merstham bringing on Adrian Stone and Tommy Hutchins for Felix and Greg Andrews. Sam Denly replaced Jamie O'Connell and Michael Turner for Jordan Casey and James Turner. Herne Bays only worthwhile effort in the second half came from a Jordan Casey shot come cross that bounced on top of the crossbar.

Somehow the Herne Bay side held out but were almost undone when Aaron Rhule and Tommy Hutchins both had shots well saved by Jack Delo.

“If I’m honest, I think 0-0 was a fair result,” said Herne Bay manager Sam Denly, ”I’m pleased that we stopped the rot, three defeats, we worked hard, the lads put a shift in today and we go again Tuesday.”

Herne Bay team: Jack Delo, Nathan Eastwood, Gary Sayer, Danny Walder, Connor Sanders, Steven Lloyd, Sam Hasler, Joe Nelder (Dean Grant 87), Jamie O’Connell (Jordan Casey 63), Ben Brown, Michael Turner (James Turner 63)

Subs not used: Kane Butler, Harry Brown