Match Report

Tuesday 10th April 2018
Bostik League Division One South
Herne Bay 1(0) - (1) 2 Carshalton Athletic
Att: 178
Goal: Embery (pen)

Herne Bay: Ben Hunter, Josh Wisson, Sam McCallum, Ben Gorham, Jardel Bunda-Kamara,
Danny Leonard, Bradley Schafer, Tom Carlton, Jake Embery, Miles Cornwell, Connor Wilkins
Subs used: Darnell Weise (Wilkins 68)
Subs not used: Danny Rumbol, Raphe Brown, Teddy Deverson, Sam Menzies
Man of the match: Sam McCallum

Carshalton Athletic came to Herne Bay as the top form team have won 9 out of their last 10 fixtures and drawing the other. They sat two points behind league leaders, Lewes with the one game in hand so they could not afford to drop any points if they wanted to keep their championship hopes alive.
The Robins started very strongly, pinning Bay deep in their own half for the first 15 minutes but despite this pressure Ben Hunter was not called upon, in fact his real save came in the 21st minute diving at full stretch to turn Raheem Sterling-Parker’s fierce volley away for a corner.
A start for England Schoolboy, Sam McCallum, returning from his International duties, and he did a fantastic job on keeping Robins dangerman, Christie Patterson out of the game for most of the match.
Bay gifted Carshalton the lead in the 34th minute. Poor ball retention in the middle of the pitch allowed Sterling-Parker to fire in a low drive beating Hunter at the far post. It could have been two immediately following the restart as the ball was again sloppily passed back to
Sterling–Parker but this time Hunter saved well.
Bay came got back in the game in the second half and were pressing Carshalton hard, with the visitors having to make last ditch challenges on Jake Embery in particular, culminating in the award of a penalty when Jake was brought down, not for the first time, in the penalty area. Jake placed the spot kick in the back of the net slotting it under the keeper.

Bay were now the dominant side and it looked as if they could go on and win the game as they started to stretch the robin’s defence. Bradley Schafer produced a surging run down the right flank and drilled a low cross into the box. Jake and Danny Leonard both dived in but just failed to make contact and the chance went begging.

As the game drew to a close it look as if Carshalton would have to settled for point but
Patterson had other ideas as he took possession of the ball on the right hand side of the 18 yard area before firing past Ben into the bottom corner to the delight of the entire team. When the referee blew for time the Carshalton players celebrated as the three points put them above Lewes in the title race and ensured that they only need one point from their final games to ensure promotion to the Premier division