Match Report

Saturday 1st September 2018
Bostik League Division One South East
Herne Bay 1 (1) - (2) 2 Greenwich Borough
Goal: Schafer
Att: 216

Herne Bay: Jordan Beeney, Simon Kabamba, Danny Rumbol, Matt Fry, Ben Gorham,
Danny Leonard, Bradley Schafer, Tom Carlton, Jake Embery, Connor Cox, Connor Wilkins
Subs used: Sami Meziane (Rumbol 25) Alex Mulrooney-Skinner (Wilkins 65)
Darnell Weise (Fry 87

Two goals in the opening 8 minutes set the tone for this game. Both teams showed their attacking intent as the threats came at both ends.
Teshuane-Tyreece Walters opened the scoring after only 36 seconds. Andrew Sesay raced down the left, outpacing the defender, and sent a cross into the box. The ball deflected looping up over Jordan Beeney to the far post where Walters out-jumped Simon Kabamba to head home.
Bay hit straight back and following good work and a drilled cross from Connor Wilkins, a diving header from Bradley Schafer went in off the inside of the far post to draw Bay level.
The rest of the half followed in this vein but it was Borough who looked the more dangerous, Walters and Sesay in particular were causing all sorts of problems for Bay’s defence with their speed and skilful footwork.
Danny Rumbol was substituted early as he was looking and feeling under the weather; Sami Meziane replacing. Bay had a couple of chances, the best coming from Miles Cornwell. Tom Carlton put a low shot into the box, forcing the keeper into a diving save, with the ball falling straight to Miles, about a metre out from the goal line. He blasted his shot straight against the prostrate keeper and the ball was eventually cleared.
Greenwich broke out of defence with great pace and this was causing real problems for Bay. From one of these quick breaks Borough took the lead and it was Walters again. Racing into Bay’s half he played a one-two with Philip Brown-Bampoe before hitting a sweet left foot volley across Beeney into the top far corner. Boro carried on forcing Bay back into their own half looking for another goal but Bay held firm. Then in the 42nd minute the dynamic of the game would change. Sesay seeing red; kicking out at Schafer after Bradley had robbed him of the ball.
The second half was effectively one-way traffic with Boro defending as if their lives depended on it, relying on the quick breakaway to keep our defence on their toes.
With time running out Bay through everything at Boro but they never looked like troubling McGill; that was until the 96th minute when Carlton was brought down in the box. The referee had no hesitation pointing to the spot. Carlton got up to take the spot kick and he struck the ball just inside the near post but McGill produced a diving one-handed save to push the ball around the upright. That would be Bay’s last chance to draw level but a draw would have been a total injustice to Greenwich Borough as they were the better side throughout the game and deserved the victory and the three points.