Herne Bay banished any thoughts of their FA Trophy exit in midweek by returning to winning ways in the league with this confident, comfortable and comprehensive performance to record their best win of the season.

“That was a complete performance today, from start to finish we dominated the game”, said Herne Bay manager Sam Denly, “We’ve got a very good squad this year, Connor Sanders switched to centre half in Quinn’s absence and was outstanding, Elliot Cutts came off the bench to score a ‘worldy’ and JT (James Turner) came on and took his chance very well”.

Being ‘at it’ is a phrase oft used by football managers these days. If I interpret this phrase correctly I believe it to mean in control, always hustling the opponent, fast paced, ‘in your face’ to quote another oft used phrase. If all of that is correct then Herne Bay were certainly ‘at it’ against Casuals from the very first whistle. It paid dividends early on as well with Danny Williams netting on the rebound after Danny Walder’s shot could only be parried by Luke Badiali. The game at that point was a mere eight minutes old.

The ‘traffic’ was mostly one way and Danny Williams might have added a second just after half an hour when he intercepted a pass in midfield, ran through the Walton Casuals’ defence, but sent his angled shot just wide of Badiali’s left hand post. It mattered little as Connor Sanders doubled Bay;s advantage with barely three minutes of the half remaining.

After the break, the pressure continued. Clearly, the home side were in the mood for more. Casuals only real effort on goal came in the 64^th minute when Billy Dunn brought out a good save from Delo, probably the only real action the Bay ‘keeper had been involved in the whole game. The introduction of Elliot Cutts brought about the best goal of the game. In the 80^th minute, the England schools international chased a pass out on the left, cut inside, beat his defender and sent, as his manager described it, a ‘worldy’ into the far corner.

Two minutes before the final whistle James Turner, who had been on the pitch less than seven minutes, completed the scoring for the day and Herne Bay recorded their best win of the season, not just in statistical terms, but also in the manner in which it was achieved.

“We were more clinical today, especially in the final third”, said Denly, “the last couple of months we have been playing some good stuff and we’ve hit our straps at a good time. If we can repeat this performance a bit more then we will win more games than not”.

 

 

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Connor Sanders, Nathan Eastwood, Danny Walder, Joe Nelder (James Turner 81), Mark Lovell (Elliot Cutts 64), Giorgio Russo (Dan Parkinson 75), Danny Williams.

Subs not used: Harry Brown, Kane Phillip.

Sent Off: none  Cautioned: none.

 

Walton Casuals: Luke Badiali, Quincy Rowe, Peter Wedgeworth (John-Prince Rylah 46), Liam Collins, Scott Day, Osa Obamwonyi, Malik Ouani (Samual Bello-Balogun 46), Jake Nicholson, Billy Dunn, Jack Sammoutis, Luke Medley.

Subs not used: Dan Newman, Marcel Barrington, Anthony Gale.

Sent Off: None  Cautioned: Quincy Rowe, Jake Nicholson, Jack Sammoutis.

 

Referee:  Jack Packman                        Assistant Referees: Jack Hobs & Zoltan Konkoly.

Man of the Match: Nathan Eastwood (Herne Bay)

 

Herne Bay (2) 4

 

Danny Williams 8

Connor Sanders 42

Elliot Cutts 80

James Turner 88

 

Walton Casuals (0) 0

 

Attendance: 127

 

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)

Wednesday 21^st November 2015.

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

 

by Peter Guise

 

(photo credit: Steven Barton – Danny Williams (11) pounces to score the opener).