There’s not many teams in the whole country outside the pro game that can deliver players of that quality at that age, says Herne Bay joint-boss John Embery

HERNE BAY joint-manager John Embery hailed his young players for giving Margate a scare in The FA Cup Third Qualifying Round yesterday.

The Bostik South side took plaudits for the way they played the beautiful game during the first half at Hartsdown Park, but despite all of their bright, eye-pleasing passing football, they only called Lenny Pidgeley into making one real save and that came from Jack Steventon’s run and shot inside the opening two minutes.

Margate boss Steven Watt made a tactical switch at the break, replacing central defender Liam Friend with Chris Sessegnon.  Tom Wynter slotted beside Ben Swift in the heart of defence so Sessegnon slotted in at right-back to snuff out the lively Herne Bay winger Nassim Dukali.

Margate took the lead after 53 minutes, courtesy of an own-goal from visiting keeper Benjamin Hunter, the ball rolling off his back into the net after Jordan Chiedozie’s two shots struck the crossbar and then the post after Wynter headed on Collin’s corner.

Sessegnon tackled Dukali five minutes later to release Collin down the right and he set-up Chiedozie to rifle home the second to kill Herne Bay’s dream.

Herne Bay banked £9,425 from their FA Cup run this season and it’s back to the bread and butter of the Bostik South on Tuesday night when third-placed Sittingbourne visit Winch’s Field.

Embery and Jermaine Darlington both left Sittingbourne in the summer to take charge of Herne Bay and have guided their new club to tenth-place in the table with 15 points in the bag from eight games.

Nick Davis, meanwhile, has guided the Brickies to third-place in the table with 21 points from 10 games and are only three points adrift of leaders Lewes.

“Looking forward to it, we’re going well in the league. Hopefully we can win that game and push on from there,” said Embery.

“The group’s great, I’ve got a great relationship with all of the boys and they have a great belief so have we that we can feel we can do ok.”

Embery said yesterday that the average age of his team is 18.

“A lot of those boys are easily able to go on and push on to higher levels, you’ve got to look at the average age of our team is probably 18.

“There’s not many teams in the whole country outside the pro game that can deliver players of that quality at that age.

“Some of them we’ve had for six or seven years. We’ve worked with them for a long, long time and we’re all getting the benefits of working hard together collectively.  The core hasn’t changed really for years but all the lads we’ve worked with for a period of time.”

Visit Herne Bay’s website:  www.hernebayfootballclub.co.uk

Herne Bay  v  Sittingbourne
Bostik South
Tuesday 3^rd October 2017
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Winch’s Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG