An unbeaten run since the start of the year has seen Steve Lovell’s Herne Bay climb into the final Play Off place in the Isthmian League South East table. 

But this weekend, Lovell, and his side face one of the Welshman’s former sides at Winches Field as Sittingbourne, who are unbeaten on their League travels, make the short trip down the Kent coast. 

The Bay boss has been talking about his side’s form to KSN this week, and told us, “Since the turn of the year when we drew with Ashford at home on New Year’s Day, we’ve had four wins and picked up a lot of good performances and at the moment, it’s going OK!” 

“It’s very tight at the moment at the top of the table and there’s a number of teams who are in with a shout,” Lovell continued, “and even those not in the top five at the moment, there are three or four below, who with a good run, could get in there.”

“Hythe did it last year with a really good late run to get into the Play Offs, so there’s still a lot of football to be played and there’s no guarantees who is going to be in the top five at the end of the season.” 

“We have been fortunate this year to have our pitch to play on and it’s helped us tremendously. It does not help when we must go away to certain grounds when we have to dig in to get the results which we have done! The 4G pitches are the way forward I think at our level.” 

“Our win last week at Phoenix was one of those games that might have been off, but both sides wanted the game to go on and to be fair, the referee listened to us, and it was right for the game to go on.”

“The pitch was playable, and they gave us a tough game – they worked very hard and stop you from playing. They did that, but we managed to get a couple of goals and it was a good solid defensive performance. It was a good three points.” 

“Sittingbourne are one of the sides who have done really well,” the Bay boss said turning his attention to this weekend.

“Ryan (Maxwell) has gone in there and done a brilliant job and they will be a tough nut to crack on Saturday.”

“It will be a good game as both teams are doing well – it will be a good battle and at the end of the day, there’s still a long way to go and both teams will be looking to get something out of the game.”