Poor defending in the first 22 minutes of a half dominated by the visitors led to Bay’s downfall.

Coming off of two good victories Bay were confident they could reverse the result when the teams met three weeks ago but it was not to be. Despite a very good final thirty minutes, following the dismissal of Mead’s Scott Kinch; sent off for a violent play when he stamped on Alex Mulrooney-Skinner in the 61st minute, where Bay pressed continuously in order to win the game.

Thamesmead used the same tactics as they did in the previous game launching the ball forward for their forwards to chase and with Bay’s defence failing to deal with this, the inevitable occurred. From the very first meaningful attack in the 7th minute the ball went over the back line to an unmarked Paul Vines, who raced into the box and was upended by Ben Hunter. Vines duly converted the spot kick. Six minutes later from exactly the same play, Harvey Brand this time ran in and drilled the ball past Hunter.

Bay then had a piece of good fortune. From a Tom Carlton shot from outside the box the ball hit Connor Cox on the back of the head and looped into back of the net. The deflection leaving Mead keeper Lewis Carey flat footed on his line. This comeback was very short lived as straight from the restart Brand raced onto another ball over the top to restore mead’s two goal lead. 22 minutes gone 1-3 down!
Bay did manage to settle down at the back but the visitors continued to dominate the rest of the half but fortunately didn’t add to their tally.

The play in the second half changed completely in the second half after Kinch was sent off. Bay pressed forward, with a the man advantage stopping Thamesmead from chasing us down at every opportunity. Danny Rumbol headed home at the far post, from Carlton’s corner, 8 minutes after the sending off and now it was game on. Two minutes later and Bay should have been level. Mead were panicking at the back, finding it difficult to clear the ball. The ball was bouncing around like a pinball machine in box as Bay search for the equaliser. Jono Richardson finally got a shot away from close range but it went agonisingly wide of the upright.
It was now frantic defending from the visitors but despite 7 minutes of added time Bay just could not find the vital goal.

A very difficult game for the referee, Graeme Ions, but he did a great job, giving the correct decisions for the major incidents in the game. Alex needed a visit to hospital after the game suffering from severe abdominal pains following the violent assault on him by Kinch.

Tuesday 7th November 2017

Bostik League Division One South

Herne Bay 2-3 Thamesmead Town

Att: 198

(Goals: Connor Cox Danny Rumbol)

Herne Bay: Ben Hunter, Danny Rumbol , Raphe Brown, Josh Wisson, Jono Richardson, Bradley Schafer, Alex Mulrooney-Skinner, Tom Carlton, Jake Embery, Connor Cox, Nassim Dukali

Subs Used: Sami Mezaine (Cox 53) Jack Steventon (Mulrooney-Skinner 78)

Subs not used: Jardel Bunda-Kamara, Jack Hyslop, Tyler Myers

Man of the Match: Danny Rumbol