Hollands & Blair 1-0 Herne Bay - We've set high standards than what we've produced so it's a bit of a false start today so hopefully we can start our season properly next week, says Herne Bay boss Liam Friend

Hollands & Blair 1 – 0 Herne Bay
Location	Star Meadow, Darland Avenue, Gillingham, Kent ME7 3AN
Kickoff	02/08/2025 15:00

HOLLANDS & BLAIR  1-0  HERNE BAY
The Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday 2 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Darland Avenue

HERNE BAY manager Liam Friend admits his side failed to reach their high standards after crashing out of The FA Cup to lower league opposition in his first game in football management.

Hollands & Blair booked their surprise place in Preliminary Round after 37-year-old striker Ian Draycott clinically found the bottom far corner just 62 seconds into the second half to pull off an upset.

Herne Bay attacking midfielder Kane Haysman had his 16^th minute penalty saved by Hollands & Blair goalkeeper Dan Ellis.

The Gillingham-based outfit also claimed a surprise 1-0 home league win over relegated side Phoenix Sports last weekend and they can now look forward to a trip to Surrey in two weeks’ time to play Knaphill in the next round, after they claimed a 1-0 away win over Midhurst & Easebourne.

“Not very good, not very good at all.  First half we were really, really poor, really, really poor. In fact, yes, terrible first half,” admitted Friend.

“We didn’t get to second balls, looked sluggish. Look like we were playing in 50-degree heat rather than in not horrendous conditions for football.

“Second half, we actually did a lot better. We had a lot of the play, a lot of the chances.  I haven’t got massive amounts of sort of criticism or negatives to say about the second half but first half was so far below our standards.  I’ve sort of said to the boys in there, that we’ve built out pre-season, we’ve got going and going and going and moved on and got fitter and it looked like we went back a month in a 45 minute spell.

“Things happen. They had their first game last week so maybe that helped them start the game a little bit sharper but we set high standards than what we produced, especially first half.  Even second half when I thought we was ok but we definitely need to set higher standards than that.”

When asked what was missing, Friend replied: “A bit of intensity, a tackle, a header, a second ball.  Three or four or five players were off it a little bit and that, the performance came out of nowhere a little bit.  You can see a little bit if complacency or a little bit of this but sort of there was none of that.  We prepared exactly the same way we prepared for our last couple of friendlies, which were against higher opposition and we’ve done very well against them but this is the bread and butter. This is the real stuff and I’m just disappointed for the fans, for the club, who have sort of backed us with a good squad and good support.

“That was the first thing that they’ve sort of seen from this team in a proper game, so it’s up to us to bounce back next Saturday. We start the League and we go from there.”

Hollands & Blair manager Darren Blackburn said: “I’m sure it will be (an upset), it should be in terms of the size of the clubs and I know Herne Bay really well, the board and staff and I sort of said to them at the end, I’m generally gutted that it was them. I didn’t want it to be them that we knocked out.

“They’ve loaned us a couple of players as well, who didn’t play. We had a gentleman’s agreement that they would’ve play today. I didn’t involve them in the squad and that meant we was massively up against it in fairness.

“We’ve had some other issues and troubles with some bits and pieces around the club this week that we had to sort of deal with, so it’s a great end to a real difficult week and I’ll be honest, I tried to get the boys to believe it. I did try to convince them that they could do it and deep down even I was probably thinking ‘can we?’, so the fact that we’ve done it is amazing and I’m so proud of the boys today, they’ve been immense for the first two weeks.

“They’ve given me just the same what they gave me last week. Something that we worked on in pre-season, I deliberately set a really difficult pre-season. I know every manager does stuff differently but I’m all about hard work and graft and I’m not at the best at anything really but I work hard and I give 110 per cent in everything that I do.

“I didn’t want the boys to be overlooked today. I didn’t want them to feel they weren’t good enough. I tried to make them believe they were good enough and I thought they went out and behaved like that they believed they could go out and win a game of football against a top, top team with some great players, good management and good structure behind the club as well.”

Herne Bay’s central midfielder Harvey Brand was quick to change the narrative, sweeping his right-footed half-volley across the keeper and past the far post from 30-yards after only 29 seconds of this Extra Preliminary Round Kent derby at Darland Avenue.

Hollands & Blair’s holding midfielder Reece Gillies fouled Herne Bay’s left-back Rhys Wyborn and Tyler Christian-Law overhit his free-kick and all that left-winger Frankie Smith could do was cut the ball back and the low cross was comfortably cut out by Ellis down on his knees.

Herne Bay were given an excellent chance to change the outcome of the game when referee Nick Bone awarded the Isthmian League South East Division side a penalty in the 16^th minute.

Hollands & Blair’s centre-half Luke Axall was penalised for tripping Herne Bay’s targetman Alfie Bloomfield, who latched onto a hooked pass from within the right-channel from debutant right-back Chris Sessegnon.

Haysman’s right-footed penalty was hit low and Ells got his big frame down to his left to make a big save and Haysman lacked composure with the second bite of the cherry, hitting his rebound over the crossbar.

Blackman said: “Dan’s been brilliant since I’ve come in. He’s got my player-of-the-year last year, just for what he’s given me since I’ve come in here, the support he’s given.

“You need your experienced players in the dressing room to have your back. Ian Draycott has been superb as well. Reece Gillies has been brilliant since he’s come in.

“I’ve got to say, I don’t think it was a penalty and I still don’t think it was a penalty, even though we’ve won the game. I don’t care, it wasn’t a penalty. He’s got the ball.

“The lino said it wasn’t a penalty and I think the referee was too quick to give it. He could’ve had a chat with his linesman and they could’ve come up with the right decision between them and that could’ve had a massive detriment effect on us, as a club.

“Maybe Laurence Plummer was up there smiling down on us. I had a little chat with him in the dressing room before the game, a few words, anything to look down on us today and luckily he did.  No one came in the dressing room when I was doing that, they’d probably thought I was mad talking to myself but he still means a lot to this club and every time I put the badge on it, it reminds me of my playing days, so it’s massive.”

Friend added: “Very good save. I thought Dan was very good for them to be fair. I’ve known him a few years. He showed what I thought we lacked in the first half. Manfulness, aggression, intensity, even for a goalkeeper, which is a bit worrying for us that was the stall sat out but a great penalty save.

“We should tucked in the rebound as well. It was definite a penalty but those things happen. You sometimes miss them and at that point of the game it wasn’t too doom and gloom because we were just starting to get ourselves going again and getting closer to where we want to be.  It’s disappointing but it’s one of those things.”

A move involving holding midfielder Christian-Law, Wyborn and Smith saw him play the ball back inside to Christian-Law, who was given time and space to hit a speculative right-footed drive, which flashed past the far post from 35-yards, but Herne Bay’s players lacked intensity and desire during a very poor first half performance.

Hollands & Blair’s left-back Joshua Brooker threw the ball to Draycott, who cracked a right-footed half-volley towards goal from 25-yards, which was comfortably saved by visiting goalkeeper Joe Coleman in the 23^rd minute.

“Draycs looked sharp for most of the game. He’s a good player. He’s had a great career and he took his goal very well, so if you give good players time and space and things like that, they’re going to punish you so that should’ve been a warning for later on but obviously we didn’t heed the warning,” admitted Friend, who was ruled out of the game through sickness.

Blackburn, who was without striker Kian Scott, who suffered a workplace injury to his shin yesterday and was also without injured pair Matthew Gething (foot) and Kyron Lightfoot, added: “Just half-chances, there wasn’t a lot in it. We defended well. I knew from an attacking point of view today we’re not going to be top of our game.”

Hollands & Blair then started to grow in confidence and they were to be denied a goal in the 29^th minute, when Coleman’s crossbar saved his bacon.
 

Excellent Blair centre-half Axall launched a long ball out of defence, Draycott chased after the ball and woeful Herne Bay centre-half Kane Rowland opened the gate and Draycott’s right-footed chip cannoned against the crossbar.

Blackburn said: “You don’t want anyone else on the end of them to be honest with you. His movement is so clever and so sharp. He’s still got a yard. He’s probably like a yard more, if you’d ask him but age is against us all and he’s making the best of what he’s got but he keeps him so well fit and he’s such a great guy.

“I just wished that one had gone in for him really. I  thought he deserved that with his first half performance - but he doesn’t miss two.”

Friend added: “Again, we wasn’t solid enough. Just through a long ball to cause us problems twice, once in the first half when it hit the crossbar and once in the second half with the goal. That needs addressing. That’s not acceptable, so we need to address that.

“Like I said, first half we were poor, no intensity to our play.  Second half, I thought we did create quite a lot of chances.  Second half, if you’re just judging the performance it wasn’t too bad.  First half, we were way below the standards we set.”

Brooker swung in a teasing free-kick from down the right-flank and the ball fell at Blair’s centre-half Kristian Wigg, who stabbed his shot towards the near corner, only for Coleman to get down low to his right to make a comfortable save.

A cagey first half, often lacking in quality finished goal-less at the break.

Blackburn said: “Just the same as I said before the game. There were a couple of tactical bits that we needed to get right that weren’t’ working. We felt that we could take advantage of the left-back Rhys Wyborn. He’s a young lad. We’re looking for weaknesses and there’s not many in their team. There’s barely a chink in their armour but we have to try to find it and we just felt maybe we can get down that side if we could. That was the area where maybe we could get in.

“I know Kane Rowland’s brilliant. We played him at centre-half when I was at Sittingbourne for numerous games. I trust him there but there be one opportunity maybe where a lapse of concentration, something maybe we might get it in terms of weakness.  There’s very, very little in their team so just a tough day at the office. The boys will sleep well tonight, as will I, that’s for sure.”

Friend said: “Well, kind of said we need to raise it because we did. We did need to raise it, so we didn’t go in throwing tea cups and shouting this and shouting that. It was needed to get some structured things correctly and do our basics a lot better, which I did think we did in the second half but unfortunately we also switched off for the goal.

“It wasn’t the most positive of half-time team talks but at the same time it wasn’t all doom and gloom, even though we wasn’t at our best, we were still well in the game and still had 45 minutes to put it right.”

Hollands & Blair set the tone with Joe Thomas attempting to score with the second touch of the ball, his shot sailing over the top of the right-hand post after only four seconds.

Hollands & Blair sealed the deal with Draycott opening his goalscoring account for the new season, just 62 seconds into the second half, courtesy of some more awful defending from Rowland.

Ellis launched a big kick upfield with his right-foot, Rowland opened the gate by falling over in the middle and this let in Draycott, who clinically placed his right-footed shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner.

Blackburn said: “Like I said, he doesn’t miss two. Even in training he rarely misses the target and I just felt he got tripped as well. I thought maybe if he didn’t score, I thought he’ll be kicking himself for maybe not going down because Kane could’ve got sent off and I think he’d be just inside the box. I can’t remember if it was around the line anyway so it would’ve been tight. You might’ve had a pen.

“But do you know what, I wouldn’t want anybody else on the end of them at that moment in that game on that opportunity with that magnitude and he just puts it away like he does.”

Friend said: “Excellent finish by Draycs. It should’ve been dealt with by Kane, something that was sort of a couple of times in the game that we didn’t deal with that. Really disappointed with the goal. It was really poor, really poor goal but it’s done now and we had a lot of time in the game afterwards to try to get back into it.  You’ve got to dust yourselves off and move on.”

Not many players in Herne Bay blue and white can leave this outing with much high praise but at least Wyborn performed.

Wyborn released a spurt of energy in attack in the 51^st minute down the left, latching into Brand’s pass before hitting his left-footed drive across the keeper and drifting past the foot of the far post.

“He had three shots, two whistled by the post, one was blocked second half. Yes, he showed a lot of attacking intent and a good performance by Rhys. He’s a good player and hopefully we can keep improving and showing that as the season goes on,” added Friend.

Haysman and winger Jordon Ababio linked up well in attack before targetman Bloomfield cut in and cracked a left-footed drive towards goal from 25-yards, forcing Ellis to dive full-length to his right and use a strong right-hand to push the ball behind in the 12^th minute.

“A bit of a snap-shot out of nowhere. It wasn’t really a chance there, I don’t think but it was a great shot by Alf and a great save by Dan,” added Friend.

Brand hit a first-time switch out to Ababio, who floated in a cross from the right and Haysman slid in at the near-post to poke his shot past the foot of the near-post as Herne Bay upped their desire levels going into the hour-mark.

“In pre-season, we’ve sort of prided ourselves on our attacking wide players and one-on-one and beating the full-backs and stuff where we didn’t do that as much as we have done in our games so that’s disappointing,” admitted the Herne Bay manager.

“We’re still creating numerous chances and numerous half-chances so on a stats scale of how many chances and how many shots we’ve had, I think we have to take it as a positive but at the same time it’s the number in the result that matters, the zero.”

Friend saw an increase in intensity when he brought on Scott Heard and Joshua Oliver in the 66^th minute but Hollands & Blair were fighting hard to maintain their second clean sheet of the season, with Axall resilient at the heart of their defence.

“Heardy’s not been involved in the last few pre-season games, so that’s why he was sub but he came on and has that intensity to run forward, pass forward and we did look a lot more dangerous with him in the team but sometimes you could sort of say we needed that before that moment in the 66^th minute. We should’ve had some intensity before that time, shouldn’t we?”

Wyborn drilled a low left-footed volley flashing across Ellis and past the far post from 22-yards, after Heard put in a cross from the right as the game entered the final 20 minutes.

Blair right-back Simon Kabamba threw the ball into the box and Thomas lost his footing before Draycott swept his shot past the near post from a tight angle.

Hollands & Blair squandered a glorious chance to seal the deal with a counter-attacking raid in the 88^th minute.

Ellis launched a big kick upfield, the ball was flicked on by quiet attacker Folarin Awoleke and substitute winger Theo Lukyamuzi latched onto the ball to send his right-footed chip agonisingly over the crossbar in a one-v-one.

Blackburn said: “Theo’s only come in this week. I’ve only seen him play for about an hour. We were so short this week. I signed him yesterday, just got him done before the deadline. He’s been about. He’s quick, he offers us something that sort of 20 yards that electric pace that we probably haven’t really got. We’ve got some powerful runners, some industrial runners, lots of them but we probably lack a little bit of pace in that front line at times and I thought we could’ve dragged the keeper in.  I think he could’ve nicked it past him if he was a little bit cuter, maybe he could’ve got a penalty.”

Friend added: “At that point in the game we’ve got to go for it. We’ve got to leave players on. We took a midfielder off and put a forward on, that’s football. We’re not going to read too much into a late counter-attack chance when they’re sort of defending for their lives, fair play to them.

“The lad who had the shot showed good pace and desire to run most of the pitch to be fair, so can’t criticise that, thankfully it didn’t go in. That’s going to happen when you’re chasing the game.”

Herne Bay enjoyed plenty of possession but they lacked the quality needed to extend their FA Cup campaign.  Friend was part of Steve Lovell’s side that reached the Third Qualifying Round last season, losing 1-0 at home to Maidstone United in front of 1,997 fans at Winch’s Field.

“I was really pleased for the boys, really, really pleased for the boys because they’re not on a lot of money. I’ll probably get seven-dayers come in all over a place in a few weeks’ time. Generally I don’t lose too many players. I try to treat them with the same respect they’ve given me and at the moment it’s going well obviously,” said Blackburn, who’s side are in seventh-place after one league outing.

“We’ve really pressed that on them. I’m big on that to be brutally honest. I’ve always been an out-of-possession coach really in terms of cutting off passing lines and not making it easy for teams to play through you.

“I think if you go toe-to-toe, it’s like standing toe-to-toe with a heavyweight boxer. If you go toe-to-toe with them they’re going to land a knockout blow eventually and that’s what I said to the boys. We’ve got to stay tight in defence, nice sort of a compact shape and then we can break out from there and you can nick things, you can win the ball higher up the pitch, you sort of get the transitions higher up.  If you can get the odd free-kick and stuff – we scored from a set-piece last week, and it was nice to score from open play today and at times we should’ve done a lot better, maybe scored a couple more in the second half.”

Friend demands a reaction for next Saturday’s trip to newly-promoted side Hassocks, who claimed the Southern Combination League Premier Division title last season and are playing in the Isthmian League for the very first time.

“The League’s the bread and butter. As a club you want to have a FA Cup run. Last season’s was a good run, obviously that’s gone now, so cup wise we’ve got the FA Trophy, the (League) Cup, the Kent Cup still to go.  There’s not really much point in discussion who we’re playing or where we’re playing or how we’re playing if our intensity isn’t a bit more improved than it was in the first half today.

“Absolutely we need a reaction, that’s what I said in there to the lads. I expect them in Thursday for training to put it behind them in the first minute of training, up until the first minute of Saturday’s game.

“Hassocks won their league quite comfortably, I believe, so we’ve got some information on the and we’ll try to process that this week and see how we’re going to attack the game next week.”

Herne Bay finished in sixteenth-place in the Isthmian League South East Division last season and Friend was asked what his aspirations are for the season ahead.

“Aspirations? I think the need to improve, that’s as simple as that. There’s no point me saying we’re going to come in this position or that position. If you look at the first 45 minutes then there’s no reason for predictions or saying we’re going to do this, or we’re going to do that.

“If you look at the second half performance then perhaps you can sort of start talking about those things but until we get ourselves sort of settled and get ourselves going really, it’s a bit of a false start today, so hopefully we can start our season properly next week.”

Looking ahead to their next FA Cup tie away to Knaphill, Blackburn said: “I didn’t even know who we had in the next round! Literally, I say very focused on the task in hand. I don’t look much beyond the next minute of the game or the next five minutes.  You start planning substitutions, you have to react to stuff in the game as manager but in terms of planning beyond today, it was just about enjoying today, giving a good account of yourself being professional, being disciplined, being respectful to Herne Bay as well first and foremost because if you don’t go out and show respect, you get turned over, you get opened up.

“Knaphill, I don’t know anything about them but I’m sure they’ll be a good side if they’ve won today, but we’ll just do the same. We’ll be us, we’ve got our DNA. We know what we are. We’ll be hard to beat, we’ll be hard to play against. We’ll work hard and we’ll see where it takes us.

“The FA Cup is huge.  Everyone wants to play in The FA Cup. We all get excited with the latter stages when our teams are in it but these early stages is what it does for the fans. Look at the reaction from the fans’ today.  The Herne Bay fans, I thought they were superb as well. They made a real atmosphere, both sets of fans, which was brilliant to see, really enjoyed it and hopefully they enjoyed two teams slogging it out against each other and we got the result today.

“We owed them a little bit for pre-season. We embarrassed ourselves a little bit down there losing 5-0 and I was really disappointed but there were some errors across our back line that day, that made it a lot easier than what it should’ve been.

“Credit to them, they’re a great team. I think they’ll be up there next year, they’ll certainly be up there play-offs or above, I’m sure.”

Looking ahead to their league trip to Fisher next Saturday, Blackburn said: “We played them towards the end of last season. They’re very much like Phoenix, very well organised, we’ll drilled team. It will be very much like the first two games of the season, I think,.

“They’ll be some killer blows that they can land on us if we let them. We just need to make sure we stay defensively tight, disciplined and we just keep the good feeling going for us as long as we can.”

Hollands & Blair finished in the bottom four in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table last season and Blackburn was asked what his aspirations are for the season ahead.

He said: “If I’m honest, I’ve not set any team any goals. The club hasn’t said to me ‘you need to do this, you need to do that.’

“The club are humble. We know where we are. We know what we are, we know who we are. It’s about saying true to ourselves and our DNA, which I think is now back at the club and hard work and good discipline and industry will get us to wherever we deserve to be at the end of the season and if that means it’s play-offs and we’re up there, top half of the table, then it will do. If we don’t and we’re not good enough then we won’t. We’ll be in the bottom half again, simple as that.”

Hollands & Blair: Dan Ellis, Simon Kabamba, Joshua Brooker (Datiel Jackson 83), Reece Gillies, Luke Exall, Kristian Wigg, Harry Linch (Theo Lukyamuzi 83), Bailey Catherick (Charlie Weston 83), Ian Draycott, Folarin Awoleke, Joe Thomas (Tyresse Bundu-Kamara 90).
Subs: Jack Reeves, Logan Blackburn, Drew Briffitt

Goal: Ian Draycott 47

Booked: Theo Lukyamuzi 90, Datiel Jackson 90

Herne Bay: Joe Coleman, Chris Sessegnon, Rhys Wyborn, Tyler Christian-Law (Henry Davies 80), Kane Rowland, Joe Tyrie, Frankie Smith (Joshua Oliver 66), Harvey Brand, Alfie Bloomfield, Kane Haysman (Scott Heard 66), Jordan Ababio (Kamani McFarlane 80).
Subs: James Rogers, William Underwood, Louie Procopi.

Booked: Tyler Christian-Law 43, Kane Rowland 74

Attendance: 235
Referee: Mr Nick Bone
Assistants: Mr Jeffery Franklin & Mr Cagri Ustaoglu