Herne Bay: George Kamurasi, Ryan Cooper, Malachi Robinson, Laurence Harvey, George Crimmen, Phil Starkey, Ryan King-Elliott, Danny Lawrence (Chris Saunders 74), Zak Ansah, Bradley Stevenson (Bola Dawodu 63), Tushaun Tyreese-Walters (Keiron Campbell 79).

Ryan Cooper made his debut in place of Joe Nelder, the injured Kyron Lightfoot was replaced by Tushaun Tyreese-Walters whilst Keiron Campbell dropped to the bench with Ryan King-Elliott coming in.

The pairing out of the hat had not been kind to Herne Bay with Berkhamsted running away with the Southern League Central Division, but any hope of a surprise victory were quickly put to bed as Bay were simply not at the races and were three down within half an hour. An early second half goal and one at the death gave the home side an easy 5-0 win. Ben Smith: “It was Groundhog Day, we were not good enough, and some players have shown quite clearly that they are not good enough to be at the club.”

The prolific Lewis Toomey, formerly with Hemel Hempstead Town, opened the Berko account with his 14th goal of the campaign in the 17th minute. There were occasional glimpses of Bay’s attacking abilities, Tushaun Tyreese-Walters coming close, but leading goalscorer Zak Ansah was too often ploughing a lone furrow upfront. Daniel Akubine made it two four minutes later and Toomey added his second just before the half hour.

Within two minutes of the second half commencing Saul Williams scored the home side’s fourth and any hopes of an unlikely comeback ended. One by one Bola Dawodu, Chris Saunders and Keiron Campbell were introduced into the fray and Bay looked livelier and some marginal off-side decisions and a penalty shout went against them and when Saunders went into a heavy challenge they were some handbags which resulted in a straight red for Saunders for pushing his opponent who had got into his face. Toomey’s hat-trick came in the last minute, his third in the last four games (in the other he had scored two). The money from a win would have been helpful but league points are now more important with clashes against top and bottom sides imminent.

Smith continued: “When people moan about players leaving, today’s performance is exactly why. There’s going to be casualties from today because we can’t go on like that, and we need to see improvements. All over today we were second best, it’s disappointing because we have some good players in the side, but they are just not showing up and letting people down at the minute. We’ve all got to look at ourselves and improve the performances, from me to everyone. Fair play to Berkhamsted, excellent side, they’ve shown why they are flying in their league and why they are going to have a good season. That’s what I expected of us, but it’s not transpired, so there has to be changes, and there will be.”