Herne Bay 4-0 Hastings United - I thought we had to play well to beat them - it's a good start, so still much more to come from us, hopefully, says fifth-placed Herne Bay boss Liam Friend

Herne Bay 4 – 0 Hastings United
Location	Winch's Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG
Kickoff	15/11/2025 15:00

HERNE BAY  4-0  HASTINGS UNITED
Isthmian League South East Division
Saturday 15 November 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Winch’s Field

HERNE BAY manager Liam Friend says there is hopefully still more to come from his side after thrashing the worst Hastings United team in living memory.

Herne Bay remain in fifth-place in the Isthmian League South East Division table with 32 points (10 wins, two draws and six defeats) from their 18 league games, while David Altendorff’s side remain in the bottom six with 16 points (four wins, four draws and 10 defeats) from their 18 games, level on points with Sevenoaks Town, who have dropped into the relegation zone.

Visiting goalkeeper, Harry Howes, was at fault for Herne Bay’s opening two goals inside the opening 21 minutes, scored by outstanding pair, winger, Jayden Silcott-Brown and attacking midfielder Scott Heard, 32.

Herne Bay then scored twice inside the final 20 minutes, a penalty from winger Kamani McFarlane and central midfielder Harvey Brand.

“I thought we started the game really well, the first 20-25 minutes, I quite liked us,” said centre-half Friend, 37, who was ruled out after pulling his back during Thursday night’s training session.

“Hastings had a couple of breaks during that spell but on the whole I thought we had good control, pressed the ball well, moved the ball well.

“I thought we were a little bit wasteful with a couple of the second to final ball, sort of just about to create a chance and it sort of broke down a couple of times.

“I was really pleased with how many times we nicked the ball off them in the first half.

“I think when we went 2-0 up, the next sort of 10-15 minutes, I felt like Hastings had a good spell, that’s probably their best spell of the game, which can sometimes happen.  We sort of saw through that.

“There was an injury to a player (my goalkeeper Coleman in the 37^th minute), what sort of gave us a chance to come and have a chat during the injury break and then after that I thought we did really well.

“At half-time we spoke about the fact that just before we’re 2-0 up, it’s not done and dusted yet and I thought when we came out I thought we controlled the second half.

“They had a flurry of corners and they weren’t coming from shots or anything like that. It was more breaks and block tackles on the edge of the box and things like that, so I was really, really happy with the second half performance.

“First half, good and bad bits. Second half, really, really pleased, lots of positive performances.”

The first opening 20 minutes was an open affair, played on a misty mid-November day, watched by 484 fans at Winch’s Field.

Hastings United went close to changing the outcome of the game when after only 245 seconds, right-back Freddie Legg released former Sevenoaks Town James Ding in behind.  Goalkeeper Joseph Coleman tried to grab the ball from the striker’s feet, who skipped past the keeper and slipped his shot into the base of the side netting.

When asked about Hastings, who have picked up eight points from their Altendorff’s first five games in charge before today, Friend said: “I think they’ve probably got a bit of confidence because of their recent run.  They’ve been on a good run since the new manager came in (to replace Lee Carey).

“I think they maybe went a little bit more expansive than maybe they have in the first few games, sort of what we’ve watched and the things we’ve done, a bit of the analysis stuff pre-game.

“They definitely looked to play more today than they did in the other games but that could be down to playing on a grass pitch.  Our (artificial) surface is lovely, so why wouldn’t you want to play?

“I just thought we were very good at breaking up the play and our first pass from stealing the ball, nicking the ball, didn’t sort of really create an opening.

“I thought we had to play well to get the four-nil. I thought we deserved it, but I thought we didn’t get lucky in spells or things like that.  I thought we played well in spells, so we’ve done our homework on them. We looked at them but I’m not one to comment on other teams.  I’m sure their manager will have much more of an understanding on what they were trying to do today but we can only control us and we did very well with what we wanted to do.”

Hastings United holding midfielder, Alfie Hilden looped a long throw into the box from the right-channel and a poor touch inside his own penalty area by McFarlane, saw Hilden recycle the ball back into the box and the ball came out to Hastings’ centre-half Sam Pidgeon, who stroked a left-footed half-volley flashing across Coleman and past the far post from 25-yards.

Pidgeon gave the ball away some 35-yards from his own goal to a pressing Alfie Cutbush, who raced into the Hastings box but lacked composure and dragged his right-footed shot across Howes and past the far post (12:54), ignoring a couple of team-mates who appeared to be in better positions.

“I think there were two or three opportunities, which were similar to that and we just didn’t have that final quality in the 18-yard box,” admitted Friend.

Herne Bay took the lead with 16 minutes and 31 seconds on the clock, courtesy of Howes giving the home side a chance to score with the second bite of the cherry.

Heard – who played behind central-striker Steven Townsend – and covered plenty of ground all over the pitch – reached the right by-line and cut the ball back to Silcott-Brown, whose first shot was spilt by Howes, low to his left, before Silcott-Brown swept his right-footed shot into the bottom right-hand corner from inside the six-yard box for his first goal for the club.

“To be honest, we don’t score a lot of scrappy goals and it was a little bit scrappy, admitted Friend.

“We seem to score quite good goals and it’s something that we’ve been talking about for a few weeks, how I’d like to see somebody hit their other foot or knee it in or off their shoulder or off their ear, or something like that.

“A good save from the goalie and Jayden was definitely alive and he looked sharp today. He was sharpest to the next one and pushed it in nicely, so yes, really pleased.”

Herne Bay were a threat down the flanks and McFarlane easily cut inside Hastings’ right-back Legg before cutting into the box and his right-footed rasping drive was comfortably plucked out of the air by Howes at his near-post.

Howes was also at fault for Herne Bay’s second goal, when it arrived with 20 minutes and 50 seconds on the clock, hitting the Sussex side on the counter-attack.

Left-winger McFarlane was inside his own half and pinged a long diagonal over to the impressive Silcott-Brown, who brought the ball under control with a sublime touch before racing forward and easily beating Hastings’ left-back Sonny Causton before putting it on a plate with a great cross towards the back post towards Heard.

His diving header was parried by Howes before Heard swept his left-footed shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner to score his fourth goal of the season.

“Heardy wasn’t very good on Tuesday (2-0 defeat at Sheppey United), last Saturday he was magnificent against Ashford (2-1 away win). He was very, very good today,” said Friend.

“I’ve played with Heardy over the years quite a lot. I know exactly what he can do and unfortunately what he can’t do – but he says ‘there’s nothing he can’t do’ - but we’ll let him continue with that.

“Heardy’s made a big name for himself in non-league over the last 10 years doing exactly that and there’s no better around of doing it once they get their finishing nicely.

“You probably expect him to finish first time but he is that good, a one-time finisher in the box. I was really pleased. I thought at that point we did deserve it.”

It was then a case of Friend’s side not deciding whether to stick or twist and the manager was concerned that Hastings controlled the game from this point.

Legg played a 20-yard pass inside to the middle where a deep Ding took a touch before drilling a low drive from outside the box, which was comfortably saved by an untroubled Coleman.

“We did stick a little bit,” admitted Friend.

“We still had the best chances, even whilst we were in control.  That’s probably the most pleasing thing for me is it’s probably our most controlled performance. We did a lot of good things whereas sometimes we’ve won games with some individual brilliance or some poor defending from another team or something like that, whereas we’ve won the game by controlling the game and playing well, so hopefully we can build on that.

“We wasn’t very good on Tuesday night, so hopefully that’s a blip and we can move on and keep racking up the points.”

Herne Bay centre-half Joseph Alatise hit a left-footed ball out of defence straight down the middle where Townsend dropped to outside the penalty area to chest the ball out to McFarlane down the left.  He cut inside Legg again and stroked a low right-footed angled drive towards the bottom near corner from 22-yards, which was spilt by the unconvincing Howes at his near-post and Darren Stock raised his offside flag to deny Townsend a goal from the rebound.

When asked about the former Beckenham winger, Friend said of Townsend, “Done really well on his debut, like a few of us, were under-par on Tuesday and then his performance today was brilliant.  He really caused their centre-backs problems, running in behind, coming in short, linking the play.  Probably a little but unlucky that he didn’t get a couple more chances.

“We needed some reinforcement. I think we picked the same team for six games running or we made two changes across the six games because we didn’t have maybe a squad that was able to do it whereas today we had a lot more experience and a bit more quality on the bench, so that was nice today to come on and didn’t make us weaker.”

Ding worked the right-channel and put in a low cross into the middle where the otherwise quiet wide striker Rushaar Samuel-Smikle (who has also played for Crowborough Athletic and Sittingbourne this season) rolled a poor right-footed shot into Coleman’s gloves from 15-yards.

Hastings United – who won the corner-count nine to seven – were denied by Herne Bay goalkeeper Coleman (36:43) – after a couple of headers from Hastings players inside the penalty area.

Central midfielder Jordan Mase swung the ball in the from the left and the ball was worked to impressive right-winger Walter Figueira, who smashed a right-footed volley towards goal, which was kept out by Coleman’s face, pulling off a brilliant reaction save.

“After the second goal we lost a little bit of control in that (midfield) area and that’s where I was disappointed with where we’ve been so dominate in that area from probably for most of the game,” said Friend.

Reflecting on the save, Friend said: “I think it was his eye ball! He’s made enough saves this year that he’s probably running out of body parts of which to save, so it’s probably another Joe Coleman lottery of his body parts.

“It’s a great strike from the lad to be fair. I think if it would’ve gone past Joe, it would’ve taken the net with him, so it was a good save.

“That’s what he’s there for, he’s big and strong, one of the positives for them was they had a lot of corners but I reckon Joe must’ve claimed and dealt with six or seven over the course of the game. That’s why he’s in the team. We’re pleased for him and its nice for him to get the clean-sheet today.

“Rogo (James Rogers) was coming in for me. Joseph Alatise has only just come back into the team, so they haven’t all played many games with each other, the back four and I thought a bit of rustiness did give them a few opportunities, which is why they did look quite good in the spell just after we scored our second goal.

“But you’re never going to get a game where it goes your whole way for the whole 90 minutes, so we sort of rode that and looked good and then the end result was good for us.”

Hastings United kept knocking on the door when Legg hit a diagonal pass to Figueira, who cut onto his left-foot and stroked his shot towards goal from 12-yards, which was gathered by Coleman at the second attempt (39:52).

“I was very critical about the 10 minute spell just before half-time, so we had a bit of a pop at them,” said Friend.

“James Rogers (player-coach) had a few words and then we sort of discussed how we’ve set such good standards and rhythm to the game for 20-25 minutes and we needed to get back to that and to be fair the players did that.

“They (my midfield three) were very, very good in the second half.  The midfield three (Cutbush/Brand/Heard) really, really dominated the game and showed the class that they’ve got.”

Friend explained why centre-half Rogers only lasted the first half and was replaced by Joe Tyrie.

“He was on a booking. It was a toss-up between him and Joe Tyrie who was going to start today.

“Joe Tyrie’s probably not quite there to start the game and with the fact Rogo was on that booking and where we were in the game, like you mentioned earlier, the sort of stick or twist sort of mentality, I didn’t want to take a risk.

“As a centre-back if you’re one-v-one and make a foul anywhere on the pitch, you’re going to get a booking these days, at least, it not a red, so I didn’t want us to go down to 10 men, so we made a change.

“I mean, Rogo played well for the part of the game he was on and I thought Joe Tyrie, it was nice to have him back as well and he had a good second half, so I thought it worked out well, I’m really pleased with both of them.”

Hastings United went close to pulling a goal back after 121 seconds into the second half.

Hilden – inside his own half – hit a long half-volley straight down the middle of the pitch and Mase cracked a left-footed volley screaming just past the left-hand post from 25-yards.

The game then turned into a cagey affair with not much happening until after the half-way point.

Silcott-Brown played the ball out to Heard, who fizzed in a cross from within the right channel and the ball fell to the unmarked McFarlane, whose first time drive beat Howes but was kept out by claret shirted defenders.

When asked about Silcott-Brown’s impressive performance, Friend replied: “Another player whose probably their best game for the club. We’ve had a little chat with Jayden in midweek and we’ve sort of said about being a bit more positive.

“We sort of said about working on the positive side of it and he’s got a goal and an assist in the first half and in the second half he looked very, very dangerous, so yes, I’m really pleased.”

Herne Bay killed the game off with 24 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock, courtesy of McFarlane’s 16^th goal of the season, just before he was substituted.

Brand’s through ball fed Silcott-Brown, who cut into the box and was fouled by Pidgeon inside the penalty area and referee Kane Dempster pointed to the spot.

McFarlane drilled a clinical right-footed penalty into the bottom right-hand corner, sending Howes the wrong way.

“He was struggling a little bit today, not his best performance Kamani,” admitted Friend.

“He’s just come back from a little (groin) injury, a two-week break, so maybe he was a bit rusty, so we were going to take him off around that spell and then he happened to get the penalty, so the boys were ready to come on and he stayed on to take it.

“He worked hard off the ball, ironically, off the ball it was probably one of his better performances because that’s not his strength but on the ball he wasn’t quite where he needed to be but he’s still got his goal, still caused the other team problems.  They always double up on him or triple up on him sometimes, so it’s good for us that he’s got through, he’s healthy, his groin’s ok, so he’ll hopefully be ready for next week.”

Hastings United’s ninth and final corner came in from the right by Causton’s left-foot and Hilden came up to send his towering header over the crossbar from within a crowd of players.

However, Herne Bay continued to impress down the flanks, scoring their fourth goal of the game, with 37 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock.

This time it was substitute right-winger Zaid Al-Hussaini who whipped in a quality cross from within the channel (as the poor Causton opened the gate once again) and the ball was hooked home on the volley at the back post by Brand, with his right-foot to notch his fourth goal of the season.

“Harvey is probably three or four goals behind where he needs to be. He’s not quite getting the luck. He’s been an inch wide or the goalie’s pulled off a worldy or he’s slipped just before he’s about to finish,” said Friend.

“We’ve got no doubt about his goalscoring ability. I think he’s a few behind where he is, so he’s going to keep tallying that and hopefully keep the numbers going.”

To their credit, Hastings United showed character to keep plugging away and they went close to scoring an stoppage time (47:45) consolation when Mase played the ball inside to substitute Hayden Skerry, who stroked a first-time right-footed drive whistling just past the foot of the left-hand post from 25-yards, as Herne Bay maintained their first clean sheet in six matches.

“We sort of broke on them quite quickly. We done quite well on the break and had chances and they sort of re-broke on us in the transition there but long shots, I don’t remember any of them causing Joe any real concerns,” said Friend.

“Hastings are a good team, got good players, got good attackers, so to keep them to nil, really pleasing.

“What pleased me today was the control our midfield had for most of the period, good shape to our midfield and the fact that maybe up front, especially with Kamani, whose probably been our stand-out player for most of the season wasn’t quite at it today, yet we still scored four goals, so that’s quite important.

“It was really pleasing to have a bit of a squad and a bit of a selection dilemma, which we haven’t really had.

“We maybe want more control for that 10-15 minute spell just before half-time but other than that, I’ll be ultra, ultra critical if I sort of went into any more detail on that about anything that didn’t go our way.”

Three Bridges (42 points from 18 games) remain at the summit and Jamie Crellin’s side host Faversham Town next Saturday – a game being covered by this website.

The four play-off places contain AFC Whyteleafe (38 points), Faversham Town (36 points) and AFC Croydon Athletic (33 points but with a game in hand) and Herne Bay (32 points), while Margate are in sixth-place with 31 points following their impressive 7-3 win away to ten-man Erith Town.

The bottom eight sides contain Crowborough Athletic (20 points from 17 games), Erith Town (19 points from 18 games), Hastings United (16 points from 18 games) and VCD Athletic (16 points from 17 games).

The four sides inside the trap zone tonight are Sevenoaks Town (16 points from 18 games), Ashford United (15 points from 16 games), Beckenham Town (nine points from 16 games) and East Grinstead Town (three points from 18 games).

Friend, who is expecting to be available, takes his side to AFC Whyteleafe next Saturday, a side that won 4-2 at Ashford United today and have picked up 12 wins, two draws and four defeats in the eighth-tier this season.

“A good team, they seem to put a few past teams as well when they’re on their good days as well,” said Friend.

“I think they might be one of the form teams in the division, beat Ashford today, so another four goals.

“The thing is we haven’t played a team this year that haven’t been good. Even teams that have been down at the bottom. Hastings were 17^th before today; they didn’t look like a 17^th team. They looked like a good team. I think we had to play well to bear them – and we did.

“It’s kind of a League where it’s more about doing what you need to do yourselves, rather than worry too much about the opposition, so we need to keep continuing and looking at ourselves.”

When asked about Herne Bay’s aspirations for this season, Friend replied: “It’s still early in our process, still early in our managing this team (12 wins, two draws and 10 games).  It seems whatever happens, we’re fifth!

“We’ll see. There’s a long way to go yet. What are we? A third of the way through now? So, a good start, so still much more to come from us, hopefully.

“The aspirations are the same when I took over.  We had to improve on last season. We were really disappointed what we produced and Herne Bay shouldn’t be coming sixteenth, so improving the team, maybe making the team a bit younger and a bit hungrier and things like that and we’ve definitely done that.

“We needed to score more goals and keep more out, we’re sort of doing that at the moment.

“I’m not the sort of person to say ‘we must come here, we must come there.’  My remit was to improve the team and at the moment we are that but we’re not resting on our laurels. We don’t take it for granted that things can change very quickly, so just keep improving, keep working hard and keep giving the fans something to cheer about, which at the moment they seem to be pretty pleased about and cheering us off and signing us off – so long may that continue!”

Friend has made 102 appearances for Herne Bay and has played for Folkestone Invicta, Margate, Ramsgate, Ashford United, Chatham Town and Herne Bay, making around 900 career (guestimate) appearances.

“This day and age, even 100 appearances is being celebrated, as we did today, which I appreciate the club doing,” said Friend, who said he was feeling ‘annoyed’ not being fit enough to play.

“Loyalty in football, I don’t know, everyone’s got a reason why they leave or don’t leave or stay at a certain club or if they’re injured.

“Maybe I’ve been lucky because my job (running a coaching business, coaching football in schools) is not particularly demanding, so if I was a plumber or scaffolder, maybe I would’ve played a few less games.

“I consider myself a fit-ish person but I think I’m built relatively robustly to what my job is and I’ll just carry on doing it for as long as I can.  Obviously, I’m picking myself at the moment, so I have to make sure someone tells me when it’s time to pack up rather than keep doing it.

“I’ve played with some really, really good managers over the years and they’ve prominently picked me and as their captain.  I had 11 years with Cugs (then Folkestone Invicta manager Neil Cugley), Jay Saunders and Steve Lovell, some really good coaches as well. I’ve had some really good clubs, they look after you.”

Herne Bay: Joseph Coleman, Zuriel Otseh-Taiwo, Rhys Wyborn (Jamie Lartice 82), Alfie Cutbush, James Rogers (Joe Tyrie 46), Joseph Alatise, Kamani McFarlane (Zaid Al-Hussaini 72), Harvey Brand, Steven Townsend (Alfie Bloomfield 72), Scott Heard, Jayden Silcott-Brown (Jared Williams 82).

Goals: Jayden Silcott-Brown 17, Scott Heard 21, Kamani McFarlane 70 (penalty), Harvey Brand 83

Booked: James Rogers 21, Alfie Bloomfield 90

Hastings United: Harry Howes, Freddie Legg, Sonny Causton, Alfie Hilden (Charlie Scarles 82), Sam Pidgeon, Eugene Asike, George Taggart (Hayden Skerry 70), Jordan Mase, James Ding, Rushaar Samuel-Smikle (Joe Clifford 70), Walter Figueira (Serge Hura 79).
Sub: Charlie Brown

Booked: Hayden Skerry 88

Attendance: 484
Referee: Mr Kane Dempster
Assistants: Mr Darren Stock & Mr Piotr Zachwieja