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Molesey was officially formed in 1953 when Molesey St Paul's merged with another club. They won the Surrey Senior League in 1958, just five years after their formation. They later joined the Spartan League (with a best finish of 3rd in 1971/72) before joining Division Two of the Athenian League in 1973. They joined the Isthmian League Division Two in 1977. In 1990 they gained promotion to Division One of the Isthmian League. Promotion to the Premier Division followed in 1993, where they spent three seasons. Relegation to Division One in 1996 was followed by a further drop into Division Two in 1999. They remained at this level, although due to league reorganisations they found themselves in Division One South until being relegated to the Combined Counties League in 2008. In 2014/15 they won the division and returned to the Isthmian League.

In their first season they ended a respectable 9th position but last campaign dropped down 10 places to 19th.

We first met in 1988 in the FA Cup Preliminary Round and came away defeated 7-0! In the five encounters between the teams in the Isthmian League Herne Bay have won two out of the three home ties with one draw, 3-1, 2-0 and 0-0, but have only managed one away point with a defeat and a draw. Last season Bay came from 0-1 and then 1-3 down to salvage a point in Surrey in December, thanks to goals from Danny Walder from the spot, James Turner and Mark Lovell and then in March, in front of Chelsea legend Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris, and on the back of four straight defeats with the playing budget having been slashed, Lovell again was on the scoresheet along with Ian Pulman in a 2-0 win at Winch’s Field. This was Herne Bay’s last win of the season as they went on to draw two and lose five before the campaign ended.

Herne Bay were on a run of 18 games without a draw when the two sides met in November and the 0-0 stalemate was the first of three consecutive draws and there has not been one since.

Molesey had a half decent start to the season winning one and drawing one in their first two games, and a season’s high placing of 6th. Since then it has been all downhill, winning just four times in their next 28 matches, with seven draws and 17 defeats. Whilst Bay were beating second-placed Cray Wanderers last Saturday, Molesey lost 3-0 at Hastings United and entertained Whyteleafe on Tuesday and drew 0-0, extending the Moles run without a victory to 14 games since a 3-0 home win over Chipstead at the beginning of November. Molesey are in 23rd place with five wins, eight draws and 17 defeats from their 30 games and are eight positions and 22 points below Herne Bay.

The two previous away games at Molesey have seen crowds of 39 and 55, the lowest average of any team that we have met in the Isthmian League. The Moles are bottom of the Isthmian League Division One South attendance table with an average of 69 (high 116, low 35).

On the corresponding weekend in Herne Bay’s Isthmian League history there were two postponed matches in 2013/14 (Burgess Hill Town away) and in 2014/15 (South Park away – surprise, surprise). 2012/13 saw a 4-2 away win at Merstham (Agbajae, Grant, Bryant and Bennett) and in 2015/16 there was a 0-0 draw at East Grinstead Town. Last season Mark Lovell scored Bay’s goal in the 4-1 defeat at home to Tooting & Mitcham United.