Ryman Rookies Rout Bay

Herne Bay (0) 0

Redhill (1) 3
Elliott 5, 76 Myrell 80

Saturday 17th November 2013
Ryman Isthmian League Division One South
Att: 221

By Steve Barton

Photo credit: Claire Shearer

There were high expectations at Winch’s Field for the visit of Redhill. The Reds had failed to win any of their previous seven league outings whilst Herne Bay were on the back of two wins with an aggregate score of 8-1. There were three changes from the starting line-up from Corinthian Casuals, two of them enforced. Jordan Casey, who came off the bench at Casuals and scored twice, kept his place at the expense of James Turner, Luke Prentice replaced the suspended Jack Delo between the sticks and Steven Lloyd came into the back four in place of Connor Sanders who had been involved in a mid-week car crash.

The weight on the shoulders of Sam Denly’s young charges proved to be too much as Bay slumped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat. Redhill went ahead as early as the fifth minute when Julian Owusu swooped to the byline, evaded the challenge of Lloyd and picked out Marcus Elliott who calmly placed his shot past Prentice. Bay came close to an equaliser four minutes later when the visitor’s keeper Max Huxter hesitated at a Joe Nelder cross, the ball eluded him and fell to Sam Hasler whose pass just failed to reach Stuart King.

Bay lacked fluidity as time after time attacking play broke down due to poor passing. Prentice looked solid in goal as he kept the free-running Owusu and Elliott in check. The referee seemed not to help as in quick succession he brandished his yellow card at Joe Kennett, Michael Turner and Danny Walder whilst, apparently, ignoring what appeared from the stands to be indiscretions from the Redhill players.

When the teams went in at half-time the consensus of the good sized crowd was that Bay could not play any worse in the second half, and they were shown to be right, but there certainly was no improvement. Owusu and Elliott continued to cause havoc in the Bay back lines and Prentice had to be at his best to maintain the scoreline. There came a flurry of substitutions with James Turner, Dean Grant and Danny Lawrence coming on for Jordan Casey, Michael Turner and Nathan Eastwood as Bay sought the equaliser. Sam Hasler became the fourth Herne Bay booking as frustration began to creep in and the Redhill players and bench made the most of any trivial matter that they could bring to the attention of the referee and his two assistants.

With 15 minutes left on the clock Owusu once again turned provider as his cross hit Grant and landed in the path of Elliott who made sure of his second. It was then that the Reds started to make changes themselves. Rees Myrell was brought into the attack and with his first touches of the ball ran through the Bay defence and beat Prentice with a sublime chip. Tre Mitford was brought on for Elliott and continued the damage caused by his predecessor.

With the clock ticking down Owusu and James Turner wrestled for the ball and both fell to the floor. Handbags followed and Owusu was shown a straight red card, his protestations falling on deaf ears. The decision was probably harsh and in no way made up for the number of yellows shown to the Bay. Gary Sayer became the fifth player in the book as it was only in the last few minutes that Herne Bay came to life. A Hasler cross was headed over by James Turner and King forced a great save from Huxter which then came back off the bar.

A below par performance that would get punished by most teams in this league and Denly will need to pick the team up again for the visit of Walton & Hersham in four days time. Expect some changes as after a display like today places are not guaranteed.

Herne Bay team: Luke Prentice, Nathan Eastwood (Danny Lawrence 70), Gary Sayer, Danny Walder, Steven Lloyd, Joe Kennett, Sam Hasler, Joe Nelder, Jordan Casey (James Turner 59), Stuart King, Michael Turner (Dean Grant 59).

Subs not used: Jaimie O’Connell, Elias Settouf.