Herne Bay: George Kamurasi, Ryan Cooper, Mobolaji Dawodu, Laurence Harvey, Daniel Johnson, Anthony Edga, Tushaun-Tyreese Walters, Tom Carlton, Zak Ansah, Zach Fagan, Keiron Campbell

Subs Used: Dan Colmer (Kamurasi40) Dean Grant (Walters 54) Bradley Stevenson (Dawodu 86)

Subs not used: Kyron Lightfoot, Dan Lawrence, Sam Bewick

Well, Herne Bay are not going to Wembley his year!! Beaten at the first hurdle by Hastings United with a great deal of help from the match officials. A few changes from the side that beat Dover Athletic so convincingly. Dan Carrington and Mo Kamara serving suspensions from last season. Bradley Stevenson dropped to the bench. Big George sent off for a totally needless challenge on Hastings forward, Tom Chalmers in the 37th minute. After being given offside Chalmers tried to round George and put the ball in the net was unceremoniously upended. After consulting his assistant, the referee produced the red card and George was off. Anthony Edgar was sacrificed and u23 keeper, Dan Colmer went between the sticks.
The first half was very even with both sides having fleeting chances, but no side ever seriously threaten the goal except in the 27th minute, Sam Adams cleverly got past DJ, raced into the box and drilled a low
volley forcing George to pull off a superb save, low down at his near post.
Every time Bay launched an attack as soon as they got into the Hastings half their play was halted by a
foul tackle, which the referee allowed to continue without ever thinking of issuing a caution, despite the same players committing the foul time after time. Ironically when Zach challenged for the ball just before half time a yellow card was issued. Following this you knew it was not going to be Bay’s day; down to 10 men and seemingly playing against a 12 man opposing team!
A very spirited second half with Bay having a number of good chances. One minute into the half TT was put through by DJ but his low shot from the edge of the box was comfortably saved. Hastings were dominating possession as you would have expected but stand-in keeper Dan Colmer confidently dealt with any threat from the Hasting forward line. The defence was very solid and Hastings, despite their man advantage, were finding it difficult to work a breakthrough. Bay was hitting back on the break with the substitute, Deano beating the offside trap but his shot was well saved by Rogers in the Hastings goal. This was followed by a free-kick which causes a lot of panic in Hastings defence but eventually, it was cleared to safety. Then just as it looked that the game would have to be decided by penalties, Hasting launched a long ball out of defence to Adams on the left flank. Looking up he saw Jack Dixon unmarked on the edge of the area on the right side. A superb cross straight to Dixon, who took a touch and fired a low drive into the bottom corner giving the hosts the all-important goal with 7 minutes left on the clock.
On 86 minutes Bradley was introduced into the game, far too late in most of the Bays’ faithful fans who had made the journey to the Pilot Field. After only two minutes his fierce volley from 25 yards forced Rogers into making a full-length diving save to successfully turn the ball around the upright.
The game still produced one further point of contention when Deano was brought down in the box. With a big shout for a penalty from players and Bay fans behind the goal, but the referee turned away, unimpressed.
The highlights from Ken’s video showed this was a clear penalty so Herne Bay can rightly feel they were cheated out of at least a chance of a penalty shoot-out. But Hey Ho that’s football; unfair so it may seem, but credit must go to the players for a great effort being a man down for 55 minutes of the game.

Man of the match: Tom Carlton. What an effort he put in today, in attack and defence, he gave a 110% for the full 95 minutes of this game.