Herne Bay started the day in 5th place in the Isthmian League South East Division and 8 points clear off the hosts, however the Brickies saw themselves move within 5 points of the promotion hopefuls, and up to 14th with a 2-0 victory.

Goals from Josh Oliver and Ben Fitchett give Sittingbourne back to back league victories, both coming at home, despite coming four weeks apart.

Chris Webber kicked the game off for Sittingbourne after both teams and sets of fans brilliantly observed a minute’s silence for Armistice Day.

The minutes silence was preceded by three ex members of the armed forces sporting a Buffs Banner placing Sittingbourne FC’s poppy wreath in the centre circle.

The wreath will be placed on the Sittingbourne Cenotaph memorial in memory of all the armed forces who have sacrificed their lives to keep us safe.  

An impressive Herne Bay crowd travelled to Woodstock Park in fine voice and saw their team come out of the blocks quickly and Jordan Perrin in the Sittingbourne goal had to make some fine saves in those early minutes.

Despite creating little clear-cut chances, the visitors looked the most likely to score with a clear plan to recycle the ball from defence to attack as quickly as possible. Herne Bay seemed to play the ball in between Sittingbourne’s centre backs as often as possible, however the Brickies back four was in fine form.

It looked as though Herne Bay had found that killer ball in the 25th minute, however it was Tommie Fagg who came to Sittingbourne’s rescue a fantastic sliding challenge. Tommie, making his 50th Sittingbourne appearance, seemingly came from out of nowhere, sliding in and winning the ball as the Herne Bay attacker bore down on goal.

The visitors may have felt it wasn’t going to be their afternoon as referee booked Tushaun-Tyreese Walters after the official deemed the player to have dived in the home sides box.

The teams went in at the break level (0-0), Herne Bay finding themselves in some rather promising positions in the first 45 but fluffing their lines when it really mattered.

Sittingbourne came out in the second half with Chris Lynch’s words still ringing in their ears and within seconds showed Herne Bay exactly the cutting edge which the visitors were lacking in the first half.

Kane Phillip didn’t give up on what seemed a lost ball, just keeping the ball in play and it was Josh Oliver scoring his third in four games who met the wingers cut back. The goal was officially timed as 32 seconds inside the second half and many in the crowd missed it as they were still leaving the bar.

A superb defensive dive in front of goal by Jason Fregene kept Sittingbourne ahead and showed once again why he’s being tipped by many of the Sittingbourne faithful to be the club’s Player of the Season.

However, the left back’s brave efforts came at a price and he was shortly brought off clutching his midsection.

Herne Bay, who were matched all over the park by a very resilient Sittingbourne, forced a few late saves from Jordan Perrin in the Brickies goal and looked like the visitors were slowly building the momentum needed to score a late equaliser.

All hopes of a late equaliser for the visitors were extinguished, however, thanks to a Ben Fitchett goal on the 89th minute. A goal which perhaps should have been palmed away by Herne Bay’s giant goalkeeper George Kamurasi,  but Ben Fitchett won’t mind having scored his third goal of the season.

That wasn’t the end of the action though, just as the board went up for one minute of added time, a very late Bradley Stevenson challenge on Enoch Adjei saw the visitors reduced to 10 men. Adjei was also shown a card, this time a yellow card for his reaction to the challenge.

A fine win then for Sittingbourne to round off the week after Tuesday’s 3-2 Velocity Trophy victory over a Cray Valley who sit top of Isthmian League South East Division.

Sittingbourne: Perrin, Smith, Fregene (Fitchett 74), Webber, Allan, Walters-Wright, Adjei, Fagg, Sollis, Oliver (Woolcott 68), Phillip,

Subs not used: Pont, Middleton, Benham

Herne Bay: Kamurasi, Cooper, Nzuzi (Lightfoot 81), Nelder, Starkey, Walters, Dawodu (King-Elliott 46), Lawrence, Ansah, Stevenson, Campbell

Subs not used: Saunders, Alyelabola

Referee: Mr Toby Enstone