Herne Bay: Robb Budd, Michael Turner, Malachi Robinson, Laurence Harvey, George Crimmen, Joe Nelder, Kyron Lightfoot (Tushaun Tyreece-Walters), Jordan Johnson-Palmer, Zak Ansah, Bola Dawodu (Danny Lawrence), Kieron Campbell (Ryan King-Elliott).

A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, ‘why the long face?’ I have just been watching Herne Bay play was the response from the nag. And there were long faces a-plenty from the home contingent as Bay fell to their second consecutive 3-0 defeat with another unconvincing performance. The returning Robb Budd replaced the exiting Jack Delo in goal and Joe Nelder took the place of Danny Lawrence. Down the flanks Kyron Lightfoot and Kieron Campbell came in for Tushaun Tyreece-Walters and Ryan King-Elliott with Ricky Freeman dropping to the bench to be replaced by Bola Dawodu.

Lightfoot and Campbell both looked lively up front, but stray passing and a resolute Cray defence gave the visitors a grip on the match. On 24 Lightfoot’s strike went the wrong side of the upright by inches and four minutes before the break Andrew Walker saved well from Zak Ansah. In an eight-minute period either side of half-time Valley netted three times, Ali Tumkaya (43), Daniel Smith (48) and Emmanuel Oloyede (50) and in each case the Bay defence could have done better.

There is no doubt that there is lots of technical ability in the squad but too many players looked like they were just going through the motions and don’t really care about the badge. The pitch is like a library at times with no noise and no leadership, just like a kick-about down the park, with nothing resting on the result. For the fans, whilst a positive result would be great, passion and commitment are essential. Cray were workmanlike and were comfortable throughout.

Ben Smith: “Bitterly disappointed again, 3-0 twice on the bounce, it’s quite hard to take really. For forty minutes before they scored, I thought we were in the game and could pose a threat to them on the break. They’re a good side, you can’t take anything away from them. It’s the manner of the goals that we are conceding, it’s just poor goals to concede. The first one he’s got a free header six yards out, it’s criminal, when you have defended well during the first half. The second half again it’s mistakes leading to goals. He’s played it straight through the wall, it’s quite frankly embarrassing and it gives you mountains to climb against sides like that, they just pick you off. But today the quality in the final third wasn’t quite there, we had some chances of our own. There will be some changes coming in the near future, obviously we move along to Tuesday evening and AFC Croydon; we can’t change a lot for that game with registrations and eligibility, but players have had the opportunity to stay at the football club and maybe not taken them.”