Bay Stop the Rot

Tuesday 17th September 2019
Isthmian League Division One South East

Ramsgate 0 Herne Bay 3 (1)
Attendance: 218

Herne Bay: Rob Budd, Malachi Robinson, Gary Sayer, Stuart West, Laurence Harvey, Chris Saunders (Bola Dawodu), Ryan King-Elliott, Danny Lawrence, Zak Ansah, Luke Griffiths (Ricky Freeman), Keiron Campbell (Tushaun Tyreese-Walters).

Malachi Robinson moved over to right back whilst Gary Sayer returned at left back with the injured Simon Kabamba making way. Ryan King-Elliott came in for Tushaun Tyreese-Walters and Danny Lawrence for Jordan Johnson-Palmer. Luke Griffiths replaced Bola Dawodu.

Herne Bay produced the required reaction to recent results with a commanding performance and moved up to 12th place with their first away win of the season and a first league clean sheet to boot. Zak Ansah found his scoring boots again with a brace which sandwiched a screamer from Chris Saunders. Herne Bay manager Ben Smith: “A thoroughly deserved win. A really stubborn performance from us. After losing 5-1 and conceding eight goals in the last two games I am really pleased with the grit and determination that we showed.”

Bay did not have everything their way in the opening exchanges, but nerves were settled on 26 when Danny Lawrence drove forward and slid the ball through to Ansah who struck first time past Will Godman. The visitors were denied a quick second two minutes later when Godman saved at full stretch from the returning Luke Griffiths. Before the break Keiron Campbell’s trickery gave him space to pull the ball across the face of goal but no-one could quite find the final touch.

Nine minutes after the re-start Saunders scored the goal of the game from 25 yards with a curving, curling strike which dipped just under the cross bar. Then, two minutes later, following some great work down the left from Campbell, Ansah scored as Ansah does, and the tie was settled, and Ramsgate had little more to offer.

Smith continued: “Our shape off the ball was really good and we made it difficult for them, which is what we wanted to do. All the time we keep clean sheets, we’ve got goals in the locker. The two from Zak tonight were outstanding and just goes to show that he is really someone that we need to get behind, and not criticise when things are not going well and we are really pleased for him tonight.

The team are more pleased with the clean sheet. We were dogged and resilient which was everything I wanted in the team and did we play amazing football throughout the game? Probably not if I am being honest, but that’s not what it’s all about, it was about coming here and getting three points away from home against a Ramsgate side with huge resources at their disposal, and we’ve done that and stopped the rot.

Is it going to mean that we will win every game from now? It’s not. We’ve got to take it one step at a time and once again I will repeat, we’re a new side, we’ll have some really good games and we’ll have some bad ones. It’s my job, and the management team to make sure that we start getting more good ones than bad ones. That’s a good start tonight, a good foundation to build on. It’s just the reaction we wanted.”