Herne Bay: George Kamurasi, Joe Nelder, Malachi Robinson, Laurence Harvey (Stuart West), George Crimmen, Phil Starkey, Kyron Lightfoot (Tushaun Tyreese-Walters), Danny Lawrence (Bola Dawodu), Zak Ansah (Ricky Freeman), Bradley Stevenson, Keiron Campbell (Ryan King- Elliott).

Ben Smith rotated his squad and made five changes with Joe Nelder, George Crimmen and Kyron Lightfoot coming back and debuts for Phil Starkey and Bradley Stevenson. All five substitutes, as allowed in this competition, also came on.

Herne Bay looked bright in the opening exchanges but contrived to let Ashford into the game and they gratefully accepted the invitation, to score twice before the break. After pulling one back the equaliser should have come but a spot kick was squandered, and the Nuts and Bolts added a third in time added on. Ben Smith: “A difficult one to analyse really. I am scratching my head to see how we have lost 3-1. Certainly, in the second half there were some good spells from us, we shot ourselves in the foot conceding three soft goals. I’ve always said that if we can get the defensive mistakes out of our game, we can be a match for any side, and certainly we were a match for them.”

The first effort on goal came in the 14th minute when the returning Kyron Lightfoot turned and forced a save from Sam Mott. Within minutes Lightfoot went down and immediately indicated that he needed substituting, as a stray Ashford foot had fractured his wrist. On came Tushaun Tyreese-Walters who continued where Lightfoot had left off and caused havoc down the right, but it was the visitors who took the lead on 22 through Tashi-Jay Kwayie who latched onto a header from Josh Wisson from an Ashford corner. Kwayie was also to go off injured early in the match and his replacement, David Smith, made it two almost immediately. In the interim a Bradley Stevenson corner eluded both attack and defence as it skidded across the goalmouth.

Bay got the goal they deserved in the 57th minute, Stevenson crowning his Man of the Match winning debut, beating Mott from just inside the box. Substitutions were made in abundance and then Bay spurned the opportunity to level. Tyreese-Walters was brought down just inside the box, and with Zak Ansah already having been substituted, Tyreese-Walters himself stepped up and blasted the ball wide of the upright, although by that time Mott was nearly on the six-yard line. The clock ticked down and Mo Kamara found himself clear on the left and slid his shot past George Kamurasi. With the ball heading for the goal line, closely followed by Stuart West, referee Scott Rudd deemed the ball had crossed the line, despite West’s scooping and the Assistant Referee not raising his flag from a position more favourable than the referee.

Ben Smith continued: “Obviously, the penalty was a huge turning point in the game, overall we are definitely pleased with the performance, although the result hasn’t come with it. But it was nice to see us playing a little bit more football and having attacking threats, and we had a very good spell in the second half where we thought we would go and score another, but it just eluded us in the end. Yes, we’ve lost, we are not happy with losing, especially the way we are conceding goals. If we can replicate that performance, certainly the second half, more often than not we are not going to come off on the wrong side. A big improvement, although it hasn’t brought a result, and it was good to use the cup game to get minutes in people. I thought Phil Starkey in the middle had an excellent game, he covered areas and did all the unseen work. Bradley Stevenson, on his debut, it was a good goal and he showed in spells that he can be a real threat for us going forward, certainly once his match fitness comes through. A lot of positives today, but I need to look at results as well. Yes, it’s not a league game, but we want to win every game we go out for. It gives me two weeks now to make the glaringly obvious changes we need to make and two weeks to work on it. We need to get back ready for the FA Trophy, but more importantly our league form, where we can have a push and turn things around.”