Hythe Town have slipped to seventh in BOSTIK South East as 2018 comes to an end after a run of four successive defeats which culminated in a three one defeat at Winches Field last weekend.
It was Herne Bay’s first League home win of the season inflicted upon their former boss Sam Denly, and one that left the Hythe boss in disbelief.
“It wasn’t the return I expected at all,” Denly admitted. “I was very disappointed – I thought the last three games were disappointing and poor… but Saturday?”
Shaking his head, Denly continued, “we made a few changes on the day and I expected a lot better if I’m being brutally honest – it really wasn’t good enough! We could have been more than three nil down and in the end we’re really lucky it was “only” three one in the end.”
“The alarming thing was that every time they went forward first half they looked like scoring. We’re giving away too many silly goals at the moment and that’s not acceptable – teams aren’t opening us up we’re giving them goals.”
“But over the course of the game on Saturday Herne Bay were by far the better side and well and truly deserved the win.”
“It’s a funny League this year and teams just aren’t consistent and we’re falling into the same trap at the moment. Teams are having a go and if it comes off and then they become hard to play against but Saturday – forgetting about Herne Bay and I really thought that they were decent – we were no where near good enough from a Hythe perspective – individual performances poor; collectively poor; and we’re in run at the minute of a very poor run at the moment and it’s down to us to get out of it without feeling sorry for ourselves.”
“I was very frustrated after the final whistle and have been reflecting on things over the days on how we can put things right. But they all know that they’re big enough and ugly enough to know that that isn’t good enough in any team that Sam Denly manages!”
Hythe finish the year with a home game with Whitstable Town, whose manager of course needs absolutely no introduction to Reachfields given the success that Scott Porter enjoyed with the club before he was succeeded by Denly, who told us, “the boot will well and truly be on the other foot at the weekend, given Scott’s history with Hythe was similar to mine at Herne Bay last week.”
“They’ve had a good win Boxing Day over Ramsgate, so we will have to a hell of a lot better as if we play like we did at Winches – it really wasn’t pretty last week and the bottom line is that will simply not be good enough from anyone!”