Herne Bay made it three wins in three with this simple victory over relegation threatened Walton & Hersham, might have scored three times that, and consolidated fourth place in the bargain.

“I thought we were excellent today, especially first half, we played some great stuff against a side that are down the bottom and struggling and it probably should have been more”, said Herne Bay manager Sam Denly, “once we got the first goal we didn’t really look back. We started well which was important. I said to the boys let’s go hard early on and we did that and it was a complete dominant performance”.

Sixteen corners in the opening half hour will bear testament to Denly’s assessment of Herne Bay’s dominance but time after time they couldn’t convert all that pressure into the final product. It wasn’t for lack of effort though. As early as the fourth minute James Turner had a shot cleared off the line, then Danny Walder’s corner in the eleventh struck the far post after eluding everyone in the six yard box.

Four minutes later the hard working Nelder saw his goalbound header pushed over the crossbar and in the twenty-fifth James Turner’s effort was pushed round the post for the home side’s fourteenth corner of the match.

Finally, Bay prised open the Swans’ defence. Surprisingly, it came not from a corner but from a long clearance by home ‘keeper Jack Delo, after a rare visitors’ encroachment into the Bay half. Turner latched onto it and deftly slotted past the advancing Liam Beach and centre half Sullivan could not recover the ball before it crossed the line.

Now Herne Bay were rampant. Three minutes later Dan Johnson curled home a free kick from 25 yards and before the half closed Joe Nelder linked well with Lee Browning to finish off an incisive move that capped ten minutes in which Bay had scored three, had pummelled the visitors’ back line and had, effectively, ended the game as a contest.

After the break it was more of the same but all too often the home side seemed to have too much time, too many bodies in front of them, and perhaps, were guilty of being a little too elaborate on occasions. Pinball football in the Walton & Horsham box it seemed.

In the sixty-fifth minute Quinn’s header was blocked, the ball fell to James Turner whose shot was blocked, it rebounded again to Quinn whose second effort was defended to safety.

Herne Bay should really have scored more but it was the three points that were most important to their manager who even found time to give a league debut to young Sam Hallett, a product of the Bay’s U21 Development Squad, who might have had a fairy tale beginning after coming on as a substitute fourteen minutes from time, but his flick round the ‘keeper was ruled out for an earlier foul.

“I’m pleased with the performance but if I’m going to be critical it wasn’t good enough second half because when you are playing teams that you are not going to have so many chances against, we’ve got to be more clinical. But I’m not going to be over critical, we had an outstanding first half”, said Denly, “there’s more positives than negatives, Sam Hallett has come on and made his debut, he looked sharp, he might have got on the score sheet, he’s a goalscorer, he will develop and mature and become better as he gets more experience at this level. All round there were some very good individual performances”.

 

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Liam Quin, Connor Sanders (Danny Williams 61), Danny Walder, Joe Nelder, James Turner (Mark Lovell 67), Lee Browning, Kane Phillip (Sam Hallett 76).

Subs not used: Nathan Eastwood, Elliott Cutts.

Sent Off: none  Cautioned: none.

 

Walton & Hersham: Liam Beach, Connor Channon, Veejay Miller, Adriano Moraes, Lea Van Sullivan, Dylan Casey, Gareth Chendlik, Prince M’ Bengui (Vincent Smith 81), Mark Corbett, Gianfranco Mici, Kambo Smith Cristano Goncalves 86).

Subs not used: Mark Hamms. (only three subs named).

Sent Off: none              Cautioned: none.

 

Referee:  Jamaal Horne             Assistant Referees: Zach Jacquart & Mark Edwards.

Man of the Match: Danny Walder (Herne Bay)

 

Herne Bay (3) 3

James Turner 31

Dan Johnson 34

Joe Nelder 41

 

Walton & Hersham (0) 0

 

Attendance: 156

 

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)

Saturday 5^th March 2016

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

 

Photo credit: Steve Barton –James Turner celebrates opening the scoring.