Littlehampton Town 2-3 Herne Bay - We showed great character when we went down to 10 men, says Herne Bay boss Steve Lovell

Littlehampton Town 2 – 3 Herne Bay
Location	The Sportsfield, St Flora's Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 6BD
Kickoff	11/08/2024 15:00

LITTLEHAMPTON TOWN  2-3  HERNE BAY
Isthmian League South East Division
Sunday 11 August 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from The Sportsfield

HERNE BAY manager Steve Lovell hailed his players’ character after winning a controversial opening Isthmian League South East Division game at Littlehampton Town with 10 men after striker Kane Rowland was sent-off for allegedly handling the referee.

Mitchell Hand and George Gaskin guided Littlehampton Town to a bottom four finish last season with 37 points from 38 games, while Herne Bay finished in the top-eight with 59 points, missing out on the play-offs by 10 points.

Lovell revealed he attended Littlehampton Town’s 1-0 home win over Tooting & Mitcham United in The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round last weekend, while this was Herne Bay’s first game of the new season.

There are Kent sides in the top seven after the opening fixtures, while the bottom five all contain Sussex sides, including newly-promoted pair Steyning Town Community and Eastbourne Town.

Sittingbourne, Beckenham Town, newly-promoted Deal Town, Sevenoaks Town, Herne Bay, Hythe Town and Sheppey United have all got off to good starts, while Steyning, Burgess Hill Town, Eastbourne Town, Lancing and Broadbridge Heath have all lost their first outings.

Littlehampton Town grabbed the lead – against-the-run-of-play – inside the opening eight minutes when striker Robert O’Toole headed in a corner.

However, Herne Bay took only 128 seconds to restore parity, courtesy of an emphatic strike from holding midfielder Mohamed Kamara.

Herne Bay then stormed in to a 3-1 half-time lead, courtesy of Jack Parter’s penalty and a counter-attacking goal from striker Michael Salako, who notched 27 goals for the club last season.

The home side pulled a second goal back through a penalty from holding midfielder Jordan Layton, who launched 10 long throws into the box and the hosts threw the kitchen sink at Lovell’s men following the 66^th minute red card for Rowland.

“Excellent first half. I thought we were excellent,” said Welshman Lovell.

“They scored a goal against-the-run-of-play early on, we came back straight away and went into a 3-1 lead and when you get down to 10 men with half-an-hour to go, it just shows character and that’s what we did, we showed character.  A great team, a great group.

“We made tactical changes that we had to make and it paid off. It was a really good three points.”

Herne Bay started the game on the front foot with Littlehampton goalkeeper James Binfield collecting three early crosses.

However, a throw-in from quiet Littlehampton right-winger Matthew Astle was flicked on by O’Toole and striker Josh Short (who dropped into a holding midfield role during the second half) cut inside Herne Bay centre-half Daniel Carrington and his low cross deflected past the foot of the far post for a corner.

The hosts grabbed the lead, following the resulting corner, their first of eight, with seven minutes and 41 seconds on the clock.

Left-winger Alex Laing swung in a quality delivery with his right-foot from the left, the ball was flicked on at the near post and O’Toole buried his header into the centre of the goal from a couple of yards out.

“It was a bad goal to concede early on,” admitted Lovell.

“We had chances to clear it in the box.  There were people there to win headers and they didn’t and O’Toole had a free header to score, so those things happen. It’s early in the season but we showed great character to come back and go into a 3-1 lead.”

However, Herne Bay equalised with a well-worked move, with nine minutes and 49 seconds on the clock.

Artem Kuchkov put in a low cross into the penalty area from within the left-channel, Salako laid the ball off to Rowland, who rolled the ball back to Kamara, who drilled a first time right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from 20-yards.

“I thought Mo had an excellent game and deserved his goal,” said Lovell.

“Mo’s goal was a great goal. It was good play. Artem’s done well again in midfield and got the ball into Kane, who rolled it off. Good goal, good to get back straight away.”

Layton, who has a controversial throwing technique, hurled the ball down the line and O’Toole’s cross drifted across Gillingham loanee goalkeeper Taite Holtam and just past the top of the far post.

Herne Bay went close following their third of seven corners.

Centre-half Tom Hanfrey went over to the right-wing and swung in a left-footed corner which was met by Salako from within a crowd of players in the box and he steered his header across the keeper and flashing past the far post.

Lovell said: “Tom has great delivery with his left-foot. Jack (Parter) has got great delivery from the left-hand side, so we’ll use them.  Tom’s got a great left-foot and he’s put two or three in there in the first half where we should’ve scored. A little touch on it, someone gets a touch on it, it’s a goal.”

Right-back Jack Parter (who linked up well further up the pitch during the first half) swung in Herne Bay’s fourth corner and Kane Haysman flick on at the near-post was heading towards the near corner, only for it to be stopped on the line by illegal means.

Referee Joshua Langley-Fineing failed to produce any card to the offender but Parter clinically stroked his right-footed penalty into the bottom left-hand corner to give Herne Bay the lead (18:58).

“Handball – it was going in!  You could see from where we were, he’s flicked it and it’s hit his hand and it’s going into the goal, so the referee’s given a penalty,” said Lovell, who was asked about the lack of a card.

“No, I know, this is the inconsistency of everything to be honest. I don’t get it. I don’t get involved.”

Littlehampton Town played out from the back during the early stages of the first half and Herne Bay’s high press often won the ball back inside the Littlehampton defensive third.

“You do a high press and they make mistakes. We’re a fit, energetic young side with a lot of mobility, so let’s use it.  Let’s win the ball back in their half. That was the plan,” said Lovell.

“I came to watch them last week in The FA Cup and I saw that was what they tried to play, so we worked on that in the week, where we’re going to press and how we’re going to nick a ball and it happened on a number of occasions.”

Littlehampton’s right-back Ben Cheverton gave the ball away to Kamara, who charged towards the by-line and he put in a cross towards the near post but Haysman’s near-post flick was comfortably grabbed by Binfield.

Just before the half-hour mark, Herne Bay won a free-kick some 35-yards from goal after Littlehampton’s centre-half Bradley Peters slid in to bring down debutant Haysman.

Parter floated in the resulting free-kick and Salako rose above centre-half Marshall Ball and steered his header past the left-hand post.

Herne Bay went good old-fashioned route-one for their third goal when it arrived 17 seconds into stoppage time.

Parter launched a 60-yard long ball out of defence and centre-half Ball was nowhere to be seen. The pass released electrifying pacey Salako through on goal and goalkeeper Binfield rushed out of his penalty area and stopped as Salako charged towards him.

Salako held his composure to skip around the goalkeeper outside the penalty area before taking a couple of touches inside the box and placing his right-footed shot into the bottom far corner of an empty net.

Lovell said: “We got the third one with Mike’s pace at the end. It was a tremendous goal, a long ball over the top. The centre-half was treading water, wasn’t he?

“Mike’s quick as hell. When he gets in those positions, no-one is going to catch him. As soon as he got there, I thought it’s a goal and he went round the keeper and took it really well.”

When asked about his thoughts at the break, Lovell replied: “Just keep it going, just use the ball a little bit more, a little bit quicker in midfield and down the sides of the centre-halves with pace and that’s what I was going to do.”

Littlehampton hooked the woeful Peters and Cheverton (who took a knock to his left-ankle after Kamara tackled him just before the interval) and Littlehampton Town came out with much more desire in front of 312 fans at The Sportsfield, played in temperatures of 26 degrees.

Herne Bay lost centre-half Carrington with a groin strain early in the second half and was replaced by Skye Salmon, while Lovell revealed that centre-half Liam Friend (bad back) is expected to be in the squad next weekend, while midfielder Scott Heard is on holiday until the following week.

Binfield launched a big kick into the left-channel and Laing cut in from the wing to the edge of the box before curling his right-footed shot harmlessly wide of the far post after only 173 seconds.

Littlehampton Town went much more direct the longer the game went on, ditching their playing out from the back tactic that they started this game with.

Referee Joshua Langley-Fineing consulted one of his assistants after a clash-of-heads inside the Herne Bay penalty area with Laing and Smith both receiving medical treatment.

A penalty was awarded and Smith picked up a yellow card and Layton stepped up to stroke his right-footed penalty into the net (13:04), despite Holtam diving to his right and getting a hand to the ball.

“It was a clash of heads but he’s booked Frankie! It amazes me but there you are. I’ll talk to him in the bar after and see what happens,” added a bemused Lovell.

Herne Bay lost some composure for a bit as the home side started to throw caution to the wind and there was to be further controversy when Lovell was about to make a double substitution.

Substitutes Joshua Reid (14) and Monty Saunders (15) were standing in front of the away dug-out as the subs board was about to signal that Rowland (7) and Kuchkov (11) were about to be replaced by the pair in the 66^th minute.

However, Rowland was shown a straight red card by the referee close to the centre-circle as he was slowly making his way towards the away dug-out.

The referee called for a second water break to cool things down and Lovell used this time to give out tactical instructions to his players’, deciding to abort the double substitution for the time being.

“I was going to bring Kane Rowland and Artem Kuchkov off and put Joshua Reid and Monty Saunders on and go to a 4-4-2 but obviously Kane getting sent off scuppered that so we had to adjust so I went to a 3-4-2 and it worked,” said Lovell.

“I don’t like getting involved with officials. He made a decision. I think he’s told Kane to go off and Kane was running off towards us.  They made a substitution later on and did exactly the same thing and nothing’s done but he’s asking Kane to go off that side (cricket ground side of the pitch).

“But I think Kane allegedly laid a hand on him, which you can’t do, so I don’t blame the referee, he had to send him off.  You can’t touch officials and quite rightly so.  They’re in control of the game, whether they make right decisions or wrong decisions, you’ve got to respect it.

“I didn’t see it so until I see it, I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to Kane or anything, so he’s very disappointed with that for letting us down.”

Herne Bay were almost given a helping hand by Littlehampton’s half-time substitute centre-half Tom Butler, as he was in a foot race with Salako, hitting a clearance over his own goalkeeper and over his own crossbar from 35-yards.

Herne Bay were a threat on the counter-attack and they went close to making the game safe inside the final 13 minutes.

Parter broke down the right and fed substitute right-winger Reid, who easily skipped past Littlehampton left-back Nick D’Arienzo, before cutting into the penalty are and bending his left-footed shot around the foot of the far post on the angle.

Lovell said: “That was brilliant. He made a great run and tried to bend it in. It would’ve been a great goal if it would’ve gone in. Josh is someone who has got loads of ability and he’ll be good for us as the season goes on.”

Herne Bay were resilient as they protected their lead that they gained during an impressive first half showing, as the home side threw the kitchen sink at them, with long balls and long throws and corners coming into the Herne Bay box.

Player-manager Gaskin swung in a corner from the right, the ball was cleared out to Short, who looped a right-footed shot from 25-yards into Holtam’s midriff for a comfortable save.

When asked about the nineteen-year-old Gillingham loanee’s Herne Bay debut, Lovell replied: “They (both goalkeeper’s) didn’t have a lot to do, did they. What he did, he did well.  He’s a young lad and he’ll grow more as we go on.

“He didn’t have a lot to do but I think he made one save that he caught quite easily but nothing really, nothing else.”

Littlehampton Town almost grabbed the equaliser with 41 minutes and 14 seconds on the clock.

Layton launched his eighth long throw into a crowd of players from the left and the ball was flicked on at the near post and sailed across and over the well-beaten goalkeeper. The ball clipped the inside of the top of the far post and Kamara was on the line to ensure the ball didn’t cross the line.

Lovell said: “We’ve defended them well. That one that was flicked over and it got cleared off the line.  There were 10 long throws and they’re going to have a chance from 10 but we defended them really well.  I thought we cleared it and we’ve stopped them from scoring, so that’s the main thing.

“That was their only chance really. That was the only concern for me was their long-throws and corners, where they’re physically much stronger than us but we defended it well.

“It was a good performance, a good all-round performance.  Two halves were different. First half we played really good football, really good pressure. Second half we had to get people back behind the ball and get them on the counter and when we went down to 10 men, it’s all about character and that’s what we showed, we showed great character.

“Everybody were throwing their bodies in, throwing their heads in and feet in.  I thought it was an excellent performance in the second half for that reason.  Two different halves but two equally important.”

Herne Bay welcome newly-promoted side Rayners Lane to Winch’s Field on Saturday 17 August (15:00) in The FA Cup Preliminary Round.

They kicked off their Isthmian League South Central campaign with a 2-2 draw at Westfield in Woking yesterday.

“It’s always nice to have a good Cup run isn’t it for non-league teams, so we’ll be looking to advance in the next round next week,” said Lovell.

“We’ll have a look, we’ll train this week and see where everybody is but we’ll carry on doing what we’re doing.  I thought we played some great stuff at times today, good football. We played really good football at times and that’s what we do, so we’ll continue that.

“We’ll work on in the week what we have to do and ready for next week.”

When asked what we can expect from Herne Bay this season, Lovell replied: “This time last year we didn’t know where we’d end up, what we’ll do and we improved as the year went on, so if we can do that this year and improve as the year goes on and pick up points when we need them and win games, then you never know what’s going to happen.

“I know it’s an old cliché but I do game-by-game and see what happens because things like today happens, you get a man sent-off and you’ve got your plans done for the next few weeks and you’re going to lose a man for three games, so the plans go out of the window.

“We lost a centre-half (Carrington) out with a groin strain, so it’s something now that we’ve got to look at next week and perhaps do a different formation in training on Tuesday and Thursday and see what happens.”

Littlehampton Town: James Binfield, Ben Cheverton (Ryan Yoro-Thomas 46), Nick D’Arienzo, Jordan Layton, Bradley Peters (Tom Butler 46), Marshall Ball, Alex Laing (Luke Donaldson 79), Conrad Honore (Charlie Pitcher 56), Josh Short, Robert O’Toole, Matthew Astle (George Gaskin 56).

Goals: Robert O’Toole 8, Jordan Layton 59 (penalty)

Booked: Alex Laing 25, Marshall Ball 82

Herne Bay: Taite Holtam, Jack Parter, Frankie Smith, Mohamed Kamara, Tom Hanfrey, Daniel Carrington (Skye Salmon 50), Kane Haysman (Monty Saunders 86), Ethan Smith, Michael Salako, Kane Rowland, Artem Kuchkov (Joshua Reid 71).
Subs: Harry Brooks, Kayan Hassan

Goals: Mohamed Kamara 10, Jack Parter 19 (penalty), Michael Salako 45

Booked: Mohamed Kamara 40, Frankie Smith 57

Sent Off: Kane Rowland 66

Attendance: 312
Referee: Mr Joshua Langley-Fineing
Assistants: Mr Greig Walker & Mr Billy Wootten