I set the bar very high standard and we're not reaching it, admits Herne Bay boss Simon Halsey

HERNE BAY boss Simon Halsey admits his side are not reaching the high standards that he has set.



The club clinched the Kent Hurlimann Football League title and came within 45 minutes of reaching a Wembley Final in the FA Carlsberg Vase last season.

But after a bright start to this campaign, a run of seven games without any win has seen the club slip down to fifteenth-place in the Ryman League Division One South table with 23 points from nineteen games.

Herne Bay suffered a 3-0 home defeat to local rivals Faversham Town last night.  The Lilywhites’ stretched their impressive unbeaten run on the road to nine games after Kieran Oliver opened the scoring after only 64 seconds before former Bay skipper Luke Harvey latched on to two long balls to score twice against his former club.

“We haven’t dealt with the onslaught of long balls all night, just woking channells really but fair play to them, that’s their strengths,” said Halsey.

“That’s not what I want to do. My stats showed we play football.  I know we haven’t won the points, we’ll have a look at that, but I’ve not got the players’. I’m not going to change my phylosophy of knocking the balls into channels and let people chase after them.”

Halsey admitted his sideare being found out by more streetwise defenders as was the case when coming up with Matthew Bourne last night.

Halsey said: “I think the pitch is too big for us now, against the level of players we’re playing against.  Maybe that may be a key factor where as before in the Kent League we could pass it around and we were playing against, no disrespect, lesser players.

“Now we’ve got a big pitch and if you give the ball away they sort of punish you for it.  Maybe it’s the size of the pitch?”

Herne Bay are scheduled to welcome Eastbourne Town to Winch’s Field on Saturday but with the muddy state of the pitch last night and the expected rain prior to the game that game could be postponed.

Herne Bay travel to bitter-rivals Whitstable Town on Boxing Day, a side that have picked up since Nicky Southall took the helm at The Belmont.

“Massive three points at stake, that’s all I’m worried about,” said Halsey, who was Marc Seager’s number two when the pair of them clinched Whitstable’s first ever Kent League title back in 2007.

“I’m not worired about bragging rights and they’ve won this and we’ve won that.  All I’m worried about are points and that’s what matters for me.

“I have to try to get points against Eastbourne on Saturday and get some points away at Whitstable, but we’ll be working our backsides off to do.”

Reflecting on their league campaign to date, Halsey admitted he is concerned with his side’s current blip – the first he’s had since taking charge of the club.

“It (our point’s total) could have been a lot less coming into this league. We’ve started off well and we’ve had a little bit of a blip,” said Halsey.

“Hythe, Faversham and Whitstable have all had their little blips. Tooting started off with a blip. Maidstone started off with a little blip!

“We’ve started off well and we’re having a litlte blip now and we’ve got to come out of it like the rest of them and we will.  We’ll work hard to get out of it.”

Halsey added: “There’s a long way to go. We’ve still got over 20 games to play yet.  People around here might get themselves down.

“I’ve set the bar high over the last three years’. I perhas got myself to blame. I set the bar at a very high standard and I’m not reaching it at the moment but we’ve got to get back to it. 

“There’s a lot of doom and gloom around the club but not from here.  I’m disappointed in losing four games or wahtever but we’re going in the right direction. We just have got to improve.”

Visit Herne Bay’s website: www.hernebayfc.net

Herne Bay  v   Eastbourne Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 22^nd December 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Winch’s Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG