It was an afternoon of mixed emotions as a good performance was compounded by defeat in Kent, writes James Barrett.
Three goals conceded from set-pieces in the first-half proved our undoing as a second-half rally yielded more positive results.
Team news: Interim boss Rob Scantlebury gave former Chatham Town striker Austin Gacheru a debut after he signed this week, while Adriano Moraes had recovered from injury to be considered again.
Despite making a bright start to proceedings we went one down after four minutes – a Bay corner was met by the head of the unmarked Liam Quinn and he powered the ball home.
We had cause to call for a penalty just four minutes later after Gacheru flicked on a Jack Eden goalkick to put Tommy Bradford in between the home centre backs. As he shaped to shoot in the area Gary Sayer appeared to give him a nudge in the back, but the referee waved away the claims.
Eden tipped over an 18 yard drive on 14 minutes but Bay capitalised from the corner – a short routine saw Sam Hasler take the ball goalwards and he beat our keeper with a firm hit from 20 yards.
We rallied and Bradford got to the by-line, by virtue of a neat one-two with Brendan Murphy-McVey, and he tried to tee up his team-mate with a pull back. A defender blocked the pass and Ricardo Panton thrashed the loose ball wide.
Sean O’Toole and Gacheru combined to set up Bradford on 19 minutes but his low drive was always rolling wide.
Bobby Price hit a deep cross on the half-hour and O’Toole kept it alive on the left by setting Panton away. He beat two opponents and lofted a cross which Mickel Miller acrobatically took down but his shot was straight at Delo.
Another neat passage of play involving Bradford, Murphy-McVey and Panton saw O’Toole put in a cross which Gacheru and Price challenged for, but it flew out to Miller who returned it with interest only for Gacheru to head it over under pressure.
Although Herne Bay remained dangerous on the break we were still playing some fine football and probing forward – Miller put Price in down the right and his low cross found Bradford but an opposing body threw itself in front of his attempt. O’Toole had a second attempt but he was also thwarted by a body in blue.
After all that we slipped further behind as another corner was whipped in to the near post area and it deflected in off a combination of Panton and Eden.
We went straight back on the offensive despite conceding the third and Murphy-McVey stung the hands of Delo at full stretch with a firm drive before the break.
HALF-TIME: 3 – 0
Bay increased their lead after directly after the restart. They hit us on the break and the ball was switched to Hasler who beat Eden again at the near post with a drive from just inside the area.
Again we went on the offensive and Gacheru won a free kick 25 yards out from goal but Murphy-McVey’s hit was deflected into the side netting.
We kept probing however and Gacheru got a debut goal on 57 minutes. Matt Males moved the ball out to the right and O’Toole picked out the striker perfectly with a driven pass which he headed past the static Delo.
Eden kept our deficit to only three two minutes later as Danny Williams burst clean through on our goal, only for our man to keep out his shot at full stretch.
Jordan Clarke and Dane Moore came on for Murphy-McVey and Males, while Moraes won a corner in the Bay area but Tony Sinclair could only stab the ball into the arms of Delo.
We kept up a sustained period of pressure around our hosts’ box on 70 minutes and, while Gacheru wanted a penalty as he felt he was felled in the six yard box, Miller had a good shot blocked in front of Delo who then denied Price at the near post too.
Panton made way for Robert Tanner with 13 minutes to go and Gacheru pressured Delo into almost dropping a Miller cross over his own line as we continued looking to reduce our arrears.
Eden did well to parry a stinging Joe Nelder strike from distance before Clarke scored arguably the best goal of the afternoon.
We won a free kick 35 yards from Bay’s goal and Moore rolled it to the substitute who took one touch before unleashing a thunderous hit past the dive of Delo.
There was still time for Price to shank a left footed shot wide from 12 yards and for O’Toole to be felled in the home box for yet another denied penalty.
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