Bay of Woe at Whyteleafe

Whyteleafe (1) 2
Ike-Robertson Feehi 7
Sam Clayton 59

Herne Bay (0) 0

Attendance: 139

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)
Saturday 26th March 2016
(at Church Road)

(photo credit: Steve Barton – Sam Hallett denied a debut goal)

Herne Bay’s dreams of a Ryman One South play-off place were left hanging by a thread after this defeat by mid table ‘Leafe’

“We’re outside favourites now to get in the play-offs, we’ve made it hard for ourselves”, said Bay manager Sam Denly, “there are three or four teams well ahead of us now so in terms of momentum and points on the board at this moment for me it’s about finishing as high as we can. We’re still going to try for it but our main focus is to win as many games as we can. We’d like to be going to Hastings last game of the season with something to play for. I’m not giving up on the play-offs, there are other teams who are favourites, we’re not one of them, if we can string some wins together we’ve got an outside chance”.

Ray Kelly writes:

On Easter Saturday Herne Bay left the Church Road ground with their play off hopes in tatters .It must be said that the Herne Bay display was very lack lustre, gone were the silky skills of a couple of months ago and we looked a very ordinary side. Whytlefeafe deserved the win with the Bay looking second best for most of the game.

After only 2 minutes Jack Delo was forced to make a smart save from a shot from Sam Clayton but he could do nothing in the 7th minute to keep out a real ‘hum dinger’ from Ike-Robertson Feehi after being set up by Sam Clayton. Herne Bay almost equalised on 11 minutes when a Danny Walder free kick was cleared of the line by Nathan Simpson.

On 15 minutes Mark Lovell had a great chance to restore parity but the ‘Leafe ‘ keeper, Adam Highsted was quick of his line to smother the ball. That was as good as it got for Bay in the first half. For the rest of the half it seemed that only Jack Delo ,Gary Sayer and captain Liam quinn kept out the Whytleleafe slick forwards.

Herne Bay started the second half with more gusto and after 48 minutes a Danny Walder cross was cleared cleared off the goal line by Vernon Francis and within a minute Michael Turner was cursing his luck when his shot just skimmed the bar. In the 59th minute Whyteleafe doubled their lead when a cross from Shawn Lyle found Sam Clayton in space , he turned and smashed the ball past Jack Delo.

Herne bay had several chances to pull a goal back but in the final 10 minutes but they were sadly lacking and out of touch in front of goal. Herne Bay’s final chance came on 88 minutes when Sam Haslett‘s goal bound shot was cleared off the line by Nathan Simpson.

“It was disappointing, our problem has been today that we have been frustrating in front of goal. We’ve created enough chances today to get the win and if we want to compete we’ve got to do better in front of goal. They were clinical and we weren’t, that’s why we lost the game”, said Denly.

Whyteleafe: Adam Highsted, Connor Wilford, Nathan Simpson, Vernon Francis, Tommy Smith, Jensen Grant, Sam Clements (Roscoe D’Sane 82), Daryl Coleman (Dylan Ramazani 57), Ike-Robertson Feehi, Sam Clayton (Jamarie Brissett 73), Shawn Lyle.

Subs not used: none (only three subs named)

Sent Off: none Cautioned: none

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Liam Quin, Connor Sanders (Dan Parkinson 61), Danny Walder, Joe Nelder, Mark Lovell (Sam Hallett 70), James Turner (Danny Williams 57), Kane Phillip.

Subs not used: Nathan Eastwood, Elliott Cutts.

Sent Off: none Cautioned: Mark Lovell, Danny Williams.

Referee: Lee Brannan Assistant Referees: William Davis & Caspar Vick.