Lacklustre Bay beaten at home

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

Just the one change with George Kamurasi coming in for the holidaying Rob Budd.

Following Tuesday’s win Herne Bay returned to their lacklustre worst against a Hythe side for whom the ‘Under New Management’ sign had gone up just two weeks ago. After a dull first half Hythe put two past Big G in the second period to take their first league points for a month. Manager Ben Smith said: “Flat is the best way to describe that performance, really disappointed that we put a flat performance in, in front of a good crowd, I feel the players have let the fans down today with the nature of the performance.”

Will Godman, who Bay had beaten three times four days ago when playing for Ramsgate, saved well from Luke Griffiths and Zak Ansah in the first half whilst George Kamurasi was a virtual verbal spectator.

Frannie Collin pounced onto a loose ball eight minutes into the second period and the visitors were in front. Bay were second best in all departments and when, in the 84th minute, substitute Tom Walmsley latched onto a stray back pass from Gary Sayer, he rounded Kamurasi and fired into an empty net.

Smith continued: “I didn’t think, especially the first half, either side really had any real openings. And second half, to concede the way we did is disappointing. the second one is a bit of a freak goal, individual error. The first one, its bouncing around and they showed a lot more desire than us and that’s how they won the game. They didn’t win the game by dominating us, it was more heart and desire which I expect my players to have every time that they step on the pitch. It seemed like it was a step too far for some of them to do it twice in a week, which is not acceptable. We’ve got some players coming in to shake things up. They’ll add something to us, and we go again on Saturday.”