Bay Battle To Extend Unbeaten Sequence

Herne Bay (0) 1
Nelder 89

Merstham (0) 1
Henriques 90

at Winch’s Field

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)
Tuesday 2nd December 2014.

Attendance: 119

by Ray Kelly

(photo credit: Herne Bay FC – Joe Nelder scored Herne Bay’s goal.)

Herne Bay stretched their unbeaten league run to five failing by seconds though to make it five wins out of five. “Not overly happy to be honest, frustrating is properly the word”, said Bay manager Sam Denly, “but we didn’t deserve to win the game tonight, I thought Merstham were outstanding, we didn’t have the quality to break them down.”

Herne Bay eventually kicked off this match against second in the League Merstham at 8.30pm due to a traffic blockage on the M2 which ensnared players from both teams. The match itself was a tense affair with both defences dominating the proceedings. For the first 5 minutes Herne Bay forced the Merstham outfit deep in their own half and could have taken the lead after only 2 minutes when 30yards out Merstham’s Kalvin Morath-Gibbs brought down Danny Parkinson. Stuart King’s free kick was turned round the post by the keeper Brannan Daly.

Back came Merstham in the 7th minute when Taureen Roberts burst through the Bay defence but he shot over from 10 yards. On 11 minutes Merstham were shocked when centre half Osa Obamwonyi was red carded for hauling down Herne Bay’s Dan Parkinson being the last man. The referee had no choice in his actions. The Merstham team quickly regrouped and started getting the balls out wide to Roberts and Aaron Rhule and on 15 minutes after a good move and cross from Rhule, Fabio Saraiva should have done better but he blasted high and wide when well placed. Two minutes later only a superb save from Bay’s keeper Jack Delo kept Tommy Hutchins from scoring, expertly tipping the ball over the bar.

Throughout the first half Merstham’s well drilled defence snuffed out most of the Herne Bay’s attacking moves and with the Bay’s defence, well led by Liam Quinn, both teams cancelled each other out.

Herne Bay’s first chance of the second half fell in the 50th minute when Dan Johnson got behind the Merstham defence before crossing but neither Stuart King nor Joe Nelder could get a boot on the ball. Once again the game started to get bogged down with attacking moves at a premium. On 60 minutes Herne Bay Manager made a double change, putting on late comers Sam Hasler and Danny Walder for Nathan Eastwood and Danny Williams.

A minute later Aaron Rhule broke through the Bay defence but he could only fire into the side netting. Merstham’s Manager Hayden Bird then with withdrew Tommy Hutchins for Omar Folkes in a bid to inject more pace and this move almost worked when Roberts tore down the right and crossed only to see Folkes head over from 10 yards.

On 78 minutes there was more misery for the Merstham side when Aaron Rhule was sent off for a over the top foul on Herne Bay’s Liam Quinn. Right away Merstham put on Marc Okoye for Omar Folkes to shore up the defence for the last 10 minutes. Jordan Casey came on for Michael Turner for the last 9 minutes in a bid to break through the Merstham defence and then on 89 minutes the Bay went ahead when King’s cross was dropped by Brannan Daly for Joe Nelder to stab home.

Merstham launched everyone forward in a bid to get an equaliser and it came with the last kick of the game when Jack Delo punched away the ball only to see it rammed back from 25yards by Tutu Henriques through a packed defence. This was two points dropped but in saying this Merstham deserved a point and could have had more but for some poor discipline.

“When you get a goal in the 89th minute and you can’t see a game out against nine men, I’m not happy obviously”, said Denly, “they’re an organised side, they’re second for a reason, it’s just disappointing, we’ve got to see games out, it’s definitely two points dropped.”

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner (Jordan Casey 85), Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Liam Quinn, Dan Parkinson, Nathan Eastwood (Danny Walder 60), Joe Nelder, Danny Williams (Sam Hasler 54), Stuart King, Steven Ita.

Subs Not Used: Harry Brown, James Brown.

Cautions: Liam Quinn. Sent Off: None

Herne Bay Man of the Match: Joe Nelder

Referee: Lee Dyson Assistants: Scott Rudd, Ryan Whitaker.