Following last week’s disappointing draw in the league, the 35s turned their attention to the first round of the Kent Cup after the postponement of all games in September. Herne Bay Vets were handed a bye when AFC Westgate pulled out earlier in the week so all eyes were on the 35s playing their first game at the stadium.

The conditions couldn’t have been more suited to the occasion, a bright crisp morning warming up to the mid teens by the time of the early 10am kick off. To complete the perfect picture, Brian Booker had been allocated the game after the original appointed referee had, it turned out, retired from reffing three years ago.

In terms of personnel today, the 35s were fielding midweek acquisition Matt Boyce for whom they paid a transfer fee of £5 to his previous club, Herne Bay Vets.

In front of him saw a return to a more familiar four, certainly in comparison to last week, with Craig Sharp, Craig Wynne, Mark Kidd and Lee Foad, back from a week of easy living in Portugal.

In front of them were Dave Close, wrestled (or liberated) from the clutches of Canterbury Dynamos, alongside skipper Stu Munday with Craig Gilpin slightly ahead of them with licence to roam. That left a front three of Bill Bowman down the left, Dave Bladon starting his second consecutive game down the right, with Scott Curtis, back from Africa, tanned and eager to take up where he left off in the first game of the season down the middle. That meant we had a had a strong bench made up of Magic Miki, Simon Bates and Lee McEvoy.

The game kicked off in front of a crowd of 30 (at its peak, because we did lose a few), including many from Herne Bay Vets which was great to see. Also present in the crowd was Matt Carvosso watching his team while nursing a knee injury that has kept him out for the last few weeks.

Having never played them before, Hamstreet were an unknown quantity but had fared well in their division of the League last season so the start of the game was understandably cagey. The team was cautioned not to over commit in the opening 10 minutes until we’d had a chance to suss them out and it is therefore understandable that the play looked a little disjointed in the early exchanges. Hamstreet boasted a large but lumbering presence up front, strong and good at holding the ball up, with their paciest player match up against Kidd down the visitors’ right hand side. There were elements in there that Herne Bay needed to master before turning their minds to attack, not least of which a good press high up the pitch. But there was an inevitability about the 35s and their attacking intent with a strong front line, a free-roaming Craig Gilpin and of course Craig Sharp, brought in to start at right back with a view to getting him to attack, with the large pitch allowing him space to run into.

But it was his defensive colleague Craig Wynne who grabbed the first Vets goal at the stadium with a header from a Bowman corner from our left. He met it squarely and thumped it cleanly into the back of net. And it didn’t take long to double the lead, just five elapsed before a good cross from the right (Sharp?) was headed by Scott Curtis on to the bar and when it dropped in the box, Bladon was there to poke home.

These goals in quick succession helped settle the home side and there was noticeable switch to playing though the ample talents of Stu Munday who gave a man-of-the-match performance today aided by the excellent of Dave Close alongside him, and later Lee McEvoy in the second half.

Hamstreet at this stage were still very much in the game and creating if not clear chances, certainly corners and territorial advantage. But with Bay now playing nicely, with comfortable movement and flowing football, another goal looked on the cards. That came after Steve Woollcott had made a couple of changes on 25 mins. On came Simon Bates which pushed Sharpie further forwards with Bladon taking a well-earned rest and Miki taking over from Bill down the left hand side. Shortly after these changes, Wynne grabbed his brace after a scuffed ball from Kidd on the left found its way through to him and him and he finished from a tightish angle from the right.

But it was game over just before half time with Hamstreet tiring, twice in succession Craig Sharp was found with a ball over the top and twice he out-paced his defender, cut in and squared for Scott Curtis to tap him. Virtually carbon copy goals in quick succession that were easy on the eye and expertly executed.

Bay retreated into the changing rooms for a half-time discussion made easier by the performance in the last half hour of the first half. On came Lee Mack in the centre of midfield alongside Munday and put in a decent performance, keeping things simple and stitching the play together. Whether there was less intensity because of the score, or Hamstreet sat deeper, they managed to keep the score as it was for most of the second half. The major talking point of the second half came after Stu Munday moved into centre back alongside Wynne and wrestled the ball off the unnecessarily aggressive forward who was (in any case) off side but as Boycie gathered the ball, he squared up to Munday and punched him in the face. With Munday bleeding from the nose, the outcome looked inevitable: he had to go. But the referee either missed it or felt unable to enforce this obvious decision awarded a free kick to Hamstreet. When Miki reminded him that he was in any case off-side, he was booked. It was a really poor moment in an otherwise good game.

There was time though for another Bay goal as Kidd bagged his second assist of the day. He executed something like three-quarters of a Cruyff turn, almost wrong footing himself, before sending over a cross that Billy met well and guided over the keeper and into the side netting.

Overall, this was the 35s finally playing as they had all last season and producing similar results. There were flashes of it last week too, having created handfuls of chances but unable to finish them by a combination of profligacy and good goalkeeping. Today was a similar level of performance but the finishing was more clinical. There are still some elements to improve – sometimes the final ball was hurried or the wrong choice but it was good to see how the ball was moved around the pitch probing for spaces. It was pleasing too to see a clean sheet, the first of the season, earning the back line an additional 3 points.

This means both Bay teams are in the hat for the Round 2 draw and those fixtures will be played on 12 November. That means the Bourne game (for the 35s) and the Baypoint game (for the Vets) will almost certainly not go ahead.

Keep your eyes on the website for fixture updates.

Two games next week - one in the London Cup and one at home to Baypoint.

M Boyce

C Sharp C Wynne L Foad M Kidd

S Munday D Close

C Gilpin

D Bladon S Curtis B Bowman

Starting from the bench: S Bates, M Radulovic, L McEvoy

Result: HBFC O35s 6 – 0 Hamstreet
Man-of-the-match: Player's vote: C Gilpin
Man-of-the-match: Opposition vote: C Gilpin
Referee: P Taylor [90]