Herne Bay completed their home league fixtures by falling foul of a sucker punch in stoppage time that denied them all three points.

“It’s frustrating and that performance and that result reflects our season”, said Herne Bay manager Sam Denly, “we haven’t been good enough in front of goal and to not come away with three points today is absolute schoolboy and not good enough because to dominate a game like that, create that many chances and then to concede in the 90^th minute is frustrating”.

Indeed, on the balance of play and the chances created Denly was right to be critical of his side’s finishing. The game should have been out of sight for Athletic long before Bradford popped in that stoppage time equaliser. In a goal-less first half Hasler had a shot well saved by Colquhoun in the visitors’ goal, Walder hit the post and Nelder saw his shot cleared off the line.

It took a penalty with less than a quarter of an hour to go for the score-line to give some indication of the dominance of the home side. Second half substitute, Elliot Cutts, was bundled over by Salgado in the area and Danny Walder despatched the penalty kick with ease.

Now Herne Bay threatened to force open the floodgates. Seven minutes from time Sam Hasler danced his way down the left, sent in a telling ground pass to Cutts who held his hands to his head as he saw his swept shot cannon back off the visitors’ left hand post with the goal frame yawning wide in front of him. Right on 90 minutes Cutts again flicked over the ‘keeper but wide of the post.

The sucker punch followed immediately with a swift break down the left from the Robins finished off by Tommy Bradford poking the ball past Delo.

“The problem is not in creating chances, we’ve always been a good side going forward, the problem is getting the ball in the back of the net and today it’s been highlighted even more so”, said Denly,

“It’s been a good season, we’ve improved on last year, we’ve been in contention for the play-offs and this last month we’ve fallen short. It’s disappointing but we’ve done well, the lads have worked hard. It’s been frustrating today but by and large if you look at the season as a whole we’ve done well and it’s a platform to build on for next year”.

 

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Harry Brown, Dan Johnson, Dan Parkinson, Connor Sanders,  Danny Walder, Joe Nelder (Ben Emery 79), James Turner (Elliott Cutts 62), Sam Hasler, Kane Phillip (Georgio Russo 70).

 Subs not used: Nathan Eastwood, Gary Sayer

Sent Off: none  Cautioned: Elliott Cutts.

 

Carshalton Athletic: Luke Colquhoun, Bobby Price, Paris Hamilton-Downes, Peter Adeniyi, Matthew Males, Tony Sinclair, Ryan Healy (Estaban Salgado 72), Brendan Murphy-McVey, Michael Campbell (Kingsley Aikhionbare 72), Tommy Bradford, Ricky Korboa.

Subs not used: none (only two named)

Sent Off: none              Cautioned: Michael Campbell.

 

Referee:  Aji Ajibola                   Assistant Referees: Wally James & Joe Kasper.

Herne Bay Man of the Match: Dan Johnson

 

Herne Bay (0) 1

Danny Walder (pen) 76

 

Carshalton Athletic (0) 1

Tommy Bradford 90

 

Attendance: 189

 

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)

Saturday 16^th April 2016

(at The Altira Park Stadium, Winch’s Field)

 

Photo credit: Steve Barton – Danny Walder scores from the spot.