On the last day of August, The Bay travelled to The Charles Ground for a three pm kick-off in their second game of the Isthmian League against Deal Town.

It was a first half of good chances for both sides, but the best two for Herne Bay came in the 32nd and 39th minutes.
After Emmanuel Robe beat his man with some good footwork, he was taken down from behind in the box in the 31st minute.
The referee awarded a penalty to The Bay, and Joe Taylor stepped up to convert but despite a good strike by Taylor, Deal’s keeper was able to match him with a low save.

A good bit of attacking play by Herne Bay in the 39th minute allowed Robe to get into the box and hit a low-driven cross into the six yard area, but Jacob Lambert’s deflected effort was cleared off the line.

At the halftime break, the score was 0-0.

Immediately after coming back out for the second 45’, Herne Bay manager, Ben Smith, received two yellow cards for dissent, following a harsh foul by Deal.

A cagey ten minutes followed, with Deal initially receiving a red following a foul on Sonny Black but the red was then changed to a yellow in the 49th minute.

Then five minutes later, The Bay was once again on the receiving end of the ref’s notebook, with defender Ben Gorham being given his marching orders through a straight red after a tussle with a Deal player.

Finally, the deadlock was broken after 67 minutes by who else but Joe Taylor.

After some great work by Antonio Morgan down the left to get a cross in that was pushed away from goal by the keeper, Taylor showed textbook striker positioning and was on the scene to nudge it into the back of the net to give Herne Bay the lead.

The goal scoring didn’t stop there, with Robe then scoring in the 72nd minute, after beating three defenders on the right and firing away a great shot that found it’s way under the keeper to double The Bay’s lead.

Deal did turn up the pressure after the two goals and were awarded a penalty only four minutes after Robe’s goal.
With the penalty given after a Deal shot was fired into the arm of a Herne Bay defender, which they then converted to reduce Herne Bay’s advantage.

Finally, in added time, Robe went on to get a brace following a brilliant counter attack. Taylor stole the ball from a defensive error by Deal, and slid the ball to Robe, who was open in space.

Robe then scored a near repeat of his earlier goal with a powerful right-footed effort into the near post to extend The Bay’s lead and wrap up the game.

The full-time score was 3-1 to Herne Bay, with this result putting them up to seventh in the table.