Sevenoaks Town started the game impressively and gave Herne Bay an early scare when they headed onto the crossbar in the 5th minute. After Zak Ansah’s goal was ruled out for offside, Louis Collins header hit the post. Bay had chances to break the deadlock, and in 35th minute, Callum Adonis-Taylor finished off a goalmouth scramble to take a 1-0 half time lead.

Sevenoaks started the 2nd half strongly and within 5 minutes they had levelled the score. They nearly took the lead when Bradley Schafer’s free kick was tipped over by George Kamurasi. Bay soon responded when a perfectly weighted though ball from Keiron Campbell found Zak Ansah who rounded the keeper and slotted home.

An exciting finish was on the cards after a deflected Schafer free kick made the score 2-2. Bay took home the three points, when Ryan Cooper’s long throw was flicked on, and Bola Dawodu stooped to head home the winner.

After the game Steve Barton chatted to Manager Ben Smith: -

Really pleased that we showed character today. It wasn’t the prettiest of games, we’ve played better and lost or drawn, but we’ve come through a topsy-turvy game with plenty of ups and downs in it. That the boys didn’t stop was the biggest thing today; the work rate from Zak up top and everyone all throughout the pitch, the boys didn’t stop working hard for each other and that’s the mark of a good side, when you’re not particularly playing well is exactly what we want to see.

To get a home win against a side that will be up there or around it; that should have been a win against Ashford and Sevenoaks, not many people would have predicted that. It’s not that we let ourselves down against Ashford, but really pleased with the way that we’ve gone today. Individual performances were good, but the collective effort and cohesion was superb.

A good debut from Callum Adonis-Taylor, I thought he was outstanding, but right through the side it hard to single anyone out because everyone did a fantastic job, and a lot of the time without the ball which is the question mark on this side. Can we do the ugly side of the game when we are not on top of possession? They had plenty of possession, but they didn’t really create a lot. We’ve dealt with the balls in the box really well and we are always going to create chances and nine times out of ten we are going to score because of the quality that we have in our side.

I thought Bola coming on gave us the extra bit of legs and bite in there. Fair play to him, he’s done well for us recently, he’s had a good run of games where we’ve been on good form. We left him out of the side today; he could have sulked on the bench, but he came on with a fantastic attitude and he goes and gets the winner. It just goes to show that it has to be a squad performance rather than just the eleven who start the game. We’ve done that without TT whose arguably been our most important player recently.

Delighted, but we’ve got to kick on from here, it keeps us in touch with the play-off positions and I’ve said from day one, why can’t we be a dark horse who goes and nicks one of those places? We’ve got a tough month ahead of us, but we are really looking forward to it and are really excited for the challenge. The supporters were excellent again today and got behind the boys, especially after we scored, and they’ve got to keep that up and do their part. When we are doing it on the pitch, and they are doing it off the pitch it’s a good time for Herne Bay Football Club.

Going into the game the boys were aware of the passing of Tony Dordoy, and the affection held for him around the club, and we dedicate this victory to him.