Herne Bay bowed out of the Under 13 Boys Cup at the first hurdle as they let a two-goal lead slip away to Sittingbourne.

After an early-morning kick-off, the visitors showed no signs of sluggishness as they raced into a two-goal lead within the first 25 minutes.

The opening goal came after 13 minutes when Arlo Muratore played an incisive ball up to Joseph Toothe, who turned and found himself with only one defender to beat. A clever shimmy created the space for him to accelerate towards goal down the inside-left channel before slotting a delightful left-footed shot into the far bottom corner.

Twelve minutes later, it was 2-0. This time, Frank Elliott collected the ball following a defensive clearance on the right wing and found Toothe again in the box. Surrounded by defenders, Toothe showed deft footwork to escape their attention before finishing neatly to double Herne Bay’s lead.

However, the margin was reduced just before half-time when some clever combination play by the home side led to a close-range shot that found the bottom corner.

Sittingbourne went into the half-time break with their tails up and began the second period in the same vein. Herne Bay, who had made several changes at the interval, continued to pose a threat when winning the ball in central areas but never quite managed to turn those moments into chances.

The equaliser came in disappointing fashion as a loose clearance went straight to a yellow shirt. An outside-of-the-foot finish saw the ball swerve away from Herne Bay goalkeeper Ollie Anderson’s grasp and into the corner.

As the prospect of penalties loomed ever larger, Sittingbourne scored what would ultimately prove to be the deciding goal. A shot from outside the box slipped through the goalkeeper to cap an impressive comeback for the home side.

Herne Bay pushed for a late equaliser and, in the closing stages, good work from Louis Joseph and Muratore saw Archie Comber released into space on the right of the box, but his well-struck shot was collected by the goalkeeper.

Sittingbourne were through to the next round, while Herne Bay were left down and out.