Bay beat Nuts & Bolts

Herne Bay (2) 2
Walder 33 (p)
Lye 45 og

Ashford United (0) 0

Pre Season Fixture
at Winch's Field
Saturday 18th July 2015

Attendance: not recorded

(photo credit: Steve Barton - Danny Walder puts Herne Bay ahead from the penalty spot)

Herne Bay recorded their first win of the pre season schedule beating a strong SCEFL Ashford United who have promotion to the Ryman League as their main aim for the coming season.

Danny Walder put the Bay ahead from the spot just after the half hour mark with the lead doubled on the strike of half time thanks to an own goal.

Ray Kelly's match report now added below:

Herne Bay entertained Ashford United for the second pre-season friendly at Winch’s field. Ashford fielded a strong side, on paper,with the likes of Darren Marsden (ex Bay player) , Paul Booth, Craig Thompson , Michael Yianne and Stuart Zanone but the Bay side bettered
them in most departments and finished up winning 2-0 .

This was an entertaining and robust match with plenty of goal mouth action at both ends. For the first 10 minutes both sides went close with Marsden and Zanone for Ashford and Mark Lovell and Danny Walder doing the same for the Bay. On 11 minutes Liam Quinn was unlucky to see his headed effort graze the Ashford cross bar after a free kick from Danny Walder. Herne Bay should have taken the lead on 25 minutes when Joe Nelder was put through only to put the ball wide of the advancing Ashford goalkeeper Joe Mante.

On 33 minutes ,following a a foul in the area on Sam Hasler, the referee pointed to the spot and sent off Luke Cuthburt to make matters worse for the Ashford side, up stepped Danny Walder to hammer home from the spot. The Bay could have doubled the lead on 44 minutes when Mark Lovell fluffed his effort after a good cross from Steven Ita. Just on half time Herne Bay went 2-0 up following a high back pass from Danny Lye that left Mante in the Ashford goal well out of position.

With Ashford down to ten men the second half they couldn’t match the Bays industry with the Bay forwards putting the Ashford defence under all sorts of trouble with Steven Ita, Sam Hasler and Danny Walder all going close. On 60 minutes Manager Sam Denly rang the changes putting on Harry Brown and Kane Butler and a few minutes latter Jorden Casey, Danny Williams and James Turner.

The most pleasing aspect of this game was that although many changes were made to the Bay side during the second half ,it didn’t alter the playing system, which must be a credit to the coaching staff and Manager. For the final 15 minutes Ashford were thankful for the four or five saves made by the Ashford keeper, keeping out efforts from James Turner and Manu and in the final minute Herne Bay's
young keeper Brad Cummings pulled off a great stop to prevent Marsden from getting on the score sheet.

All in all a very entertaining game.

Herne Bay Squad: Brad Cummings, Micheal Turner, Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Liam Quinn, Nathan Eastwood, Danny Walder, Joe Nelder, Mark Lovell, Sam Hasler, Steven Ita, Connor Sanders, James Brown, Kane Butler, Danny Williams, James Turner, Manu, Lewis, Harry Brown.