Erith Town 1-5 Herne Bay - That five point gap was playing on my mind a little bit so glad to take it back up to eight, says Herne Bay boss James Collins, who inflicts Adam Woodward's "one of his worst nights" as Erith Town manager

Erith Town 1 – 5 Herne Bay
Location	Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ
Kickoff	11/03/2025 19:45

ERITH TOWN  1-5  HERNE BAY
Isthmian League South East Division
Tuesday 11 March 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Bayliss Avenue

HERNE BAY manager James Collins says he is feeling relieved because being five points clear of the relegation zone was playing on his mind but he’s feeling glad that it’s now an eight point gap after inflicting Erith Town’s heaviest defeat as an Isthmian League club.

Herne Bay remain in seventeenth-place in the Isthmian League South East Division table with 35 points (nine wins, eight draws and 16 defeats), eight points clear of Littlehampton Town, who lost 3-1 at second-placed side Sittingbourne tonight.

Herne Bay were clinical in front of goal in Collins’ fourth game in charge of the Winch’s Field outfit, racing into a 3-0 lead going into the break with goals from impressive winger Joshua Reid, central midfielder Scott Heard and striker Michael Salako, who notched his 18^th goal of the season.

The Dockers came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half with winger James Dyer hitting a rasping drive to score his 15^th goal of the season, before hitting the far post from a long-range set-piece.

However, Herne Bay picked up their first league win since beating Phoenix Sports 3-1 on 19 October, as Kane Rowland chipped in his tenth goal of the campaign, before Alfie Hill came off the bench to volley into the top far corner to open his goalscoring account for the Kent coastal outfit.

Erith Town remain in thirteenth-place in their maiden eighth-tier campaign with 43 points (11 wins, 10 draws and 11 defeats) and are now winless in their last six outings.

“Relief probably, just relief, looking at the results at the weekend and we were five points above the drop zone, so I felt like we needed to get a win and obviously nice to get my first win at the club,” said Collins, 42, who has picked up five points from his first four games since taking over last month.

“I thought we played really, really well tonight.  I asked how I wanted us to play, we did the basics really well, took our goals well and just a good round good night.”

Collins, an Erith resident, started his managerial career at Erith Town and was asked about his return to the club for tonight’s match.

“It’s very different now, different people. Woody is a friend of mine so you don’t like it when your friends lose and stuff but we needed to get a result tonight,” said Collins.

“Yes, it was where it all started. It’s a very different club now and what this club has done in the last couple of years under Mark Deveney and Woody is absolutely phenomenal and it’s a very, very different club to what I left.”

When asked about his game plan, Collins replied: “The pitch was never going to be conducive to great football and I just felt like Woody’s teams are always to be hard working. I felt we needed to out-work them.  I felt we had to play off second balls, get the ball out wide, get the ball in the box and put them under pressure on the ball and hopefully have enough quality in the final third to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Erith Town manager Adam Woodward was clearly angry with his side’s worst ever showing during their maiden campaign at this level.

“S**t! Absolutely s**t! I thought we were ok for the first 10 minutes and then the first goal has absolutely killed us.  I think there’s a foul in the buildup but the goalkeeper’s got to save it and that sort of knocked the wind out of us and then we just looked like a Step Five side after that,” said Woodward.

“What’s missing? I  think what’s been missing in general the last two or three weeks is the fact that we just seem to have thought we’ve got 43 points, we’re safe now, but that’s not us.

“We’re missing Harry Taylor but we just can’t be a one-man team.  Harry knows his 10 bookings are absolutely silly but we don’t want to keep talking about referees.”

The start of the game was open and played at a frenetic pace and Erith Town created their first opening after only 92 seconds.

Dyer floated a left-footed free-kick from the middle of the park and James Miles flicked his near-post header, which bounced comfortably into the gloves of visiting goalkeeper Harley Earle.

Herne Bay swiftly attacked and Theo Osinfolarin whipped in a cross from within the left-channel, the ball was knocked down by central striker Salako and Osinfolarin’s left-footed half-volley was gathered by former Herne Bay stopper Harry Brooks after just 123 seconds.

Heard was tackled by Miles inside the Erith Town half before the attacking midfielder drove straight down the middle before feeding striker George Goodwin, who stroked a right-footed drive from 25-yards, which bounced a couple of times before being comfortably held by Earle, low to his left with six minutes and 52 seconds on the clock.

An unimpressed Woodward simply said: “Powderpuff really, wasn’t it? Powderpuff!”

Goodwin was deployed as a lone striker with Miles sat behind him as 20-goal striker Harry Taylor was serving a two-match suspension after picking up 10 yellow cards.

Herne Bay grabbed the lead – against-the-run-of-play – with 16 minutes and 17 seconds on the clock.

Erith Town centre-half Jerome Jayaguru had his pocket picked by a pressing Ethan Smith within the defensive third and the ball was worked out to Reid, who cut in and placed his right-footed angled drive across Brooks and the ball trickled into the bottom far corner.

“Absolutely fantastic from Ethan. We spoke about being on the front foot and pressing, it’s a brilliant header,” said Collins.

“We wanted to isolate Josh one-v-one. We’ve been trying to do that and we’ve got him in a couple of times in the games that I’ve been in but not really got his shot off. 

“We knew the pitch was going to be tricky and we wanted to make sure we had shots, plenty of shots. We didn’t do that against Croydon, without a goalkeeper (who was sent-off in the 44^th minute before being held to a 2-2 home draw on Saturday).

“I’m really pleased for Josh because his work-rate since I’ve come in, he’s been phenomenal and really pleased that he got a goal today.”

Woodward added: “They wanted it. They’re like a team like Phoenix last Tuesday night (which we lost 2-1 to), a team that have got something to play for in the relegation battle and they blew us away, like Phoenix did.

“They ran around and we just didn’t. We just didn’t run around. Unfortunately, if teams work harder than you then 99% of times they win games.

“I think trickled in the bottom right-hand corner of the goal is being polite! It’s a goalkeeping error. I think he knows that as well. He’s held his hands up for that, so yes, it’s unfortunate.”

Herne Bay showed plenty of desire to press their opponents and win the ball all over the pitch as several of Erith Town’s players put in poor performances, like goalkeeper Brooks and left-back Andrew Dythe.

Herne Bay left-back Fenn Roberts heaped praise from Collins for his dominant performance as he kept winger Gael Kileba in his pocket as Herne Bay often doubled up on the Docker.

“I think the first game was really poor from us (lost 2-1 at home to Phoenix Sports), then against Sheppey (0-0 draw), I thought the pressing was better and then we did it well for 20 minutes AFC Croydon Athletic, but I thought today we did it for the majority of the game,” added the former Bowers & Pitsea manager.

“It’s getting the players to buy into that. We’re obviously still learning about each other and we worked really hard tonight and I thought we deserved the victory.

“I’ve got to give a shout out to Fenn Roberts. He’s a young lad and he played in the first game against Phoenix and then got taken out for a couple of games and I thought he was absolutely outstanding tonight. We doubled up (on Kileba) but I thought Fenn handled him really well.”

Roberts was released down the left and he put in a great cross within the channel towards the near-post where Salako nipped in Jayaguru to glance his header towards the near post and Brooks made a rare save.

Collins added: “We spoke about getting the ball out wide and putting balls into the box.  We went with two up front tonight, which felt we missed the middle of the pitch out and slightly tired pitch.

“Mikey’s scored goals this season and did well but it was probably a tight angle to score from.”

Herne Bay went on a blistering successful counter-attack, defending the home side’s third corner of the game, before swiftly racing up the other end and doubling their lead with 36 minutes and 26 seconds on the clock.

Dyer swung in a left-footed corner in from the right and Earle palmed the ball away whilst under pressure inside the Herne Bay box.

Right-back Myles Judd launched a long ball which was chased by Smith at the other end of the pitch.

Reid got into the action and swept a left-footed ball across the face of goal towards an unmarked Heard, who tapped-in his right-footed shot from within the six-yard box to give the Dockers’ a mountain to climb.

“I think it was a great counter-attacking goal,” added Collins.

“We spoke about when we get into those areas that we’ve got to play forward and be brave.  I think the ball went up, Ethan went to chase the ball and Josh has picked up the second and then Scott Heard has made a great run to get into the box to finish it off.
 

“Those goals please me because we’ve defended the corner well, but we’ve then been able to get up the other end of the pitch, put pressure on the first knockdown.  We’ve then picked it up and desire for Scott to get into the box is fantastic and something that we’ve been speaking about. It’s very pleasing.”

Woodward added: “Fantastic corner by James Dyer. Lazy defending really and we just didn’t get back in time.  We didn’t get back in numbers so yes, a little bit of heart and desire (was missing) and what got us out of the SCEFL was heart and desire.”

Clinical Herne Bay scored their third goal of the night with their next chance, timed at 43 minutes and 26 seconds on the clock.

Erith Town centre-half Calum McGeehan rolled the ball back to Brooks, who cleared his lines as Salako charged towards him.

Heard used his chest some 35-yards from goal to cushion the ball out to the impressive Reid on the right and he easily turned the woeful Dythe before whipping in a deep cross towards the back post.

Rowland knocked the ball down with his head from a tight angle and Salako bundled the ball over the line in the centre of the goal from inches from the goal-line.

Collins said: “I thought we got into good areas and put balls into the box and initially since I’ve been at the club the balls have not been of the quality that we’ve wanted.

“It was a great cross from Josh and Kane Rowland’s made a great header. It’s a fantastic header across and I said before the game, the goal that I’d be most happy about is if we score a tap-in because the pitch was going to be tricky, you want people following up, be proactive, don’t wait for things to happen, make things happen and pleased that Mike got his goal.”

Woodward turned to blame referee Michael Scott rather than his players for the goal and their awful first half performance after conceding the first goal.

“I think it’s a foul on the goalkeeper to be honest, beforehand. The referee said that the goalkeeper kicked him but I think it’s a poor decision by the referee.  Ninety-nine percent of times they’ve given us free-kicks but coming in at 3-0 down, it’s tough.”

When asked what manager’s said at half-time, Woodward replied: “I didn’t really say a lot to be honest, didn’t really say a lot really. Just we had to try to get back in the game and work hard – and we didn’t!”

Collins added: “ I said it’s the hardest team talk – can you do exactly the same again?

“It doesn’t work like that, does it? Knowing Woody, he would’ve probably got into his boys at half-time.

“I think it was just a case of trying to ride out the early storm.  They’re safe and they had nothing to lose by going for it, so we expected a little bit of pressure especially on a pitch where it’s going to be a little bit direct, so just make sure we do the basics well and we got tight and unfortunately they scored early on but pleased with the reaction that we then still went on to win the second half.”

Goodwin was hooked at the interval by Woodward, who brought on Ollie Milton from the bench and Milton was joined up front by Aaron Jeffery, who played the first half sat in front of the back four, a role that Miles took up after the break.

The Dockers came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half and upped their desire levels and created an opening after only 112 seconds when McGeehan hooked his 25-yard shot across the keeper and past the far post after Dyer put the ball into the Herne Bay box from a set-piece.

Woodward said: “I thought we were the better side for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half. I thought we were ok but that’s what we expect really.

Collins added: “They were going to put balls in the box, they won the first header and he’s had a strike from outside the box but I wouldn’t say it was a chance. It’s going to happen on a direct pitch, a half-chance, I’ll say.”

Erith Town pulled a goal back with four minutes and 15 seconds on the clock with a sublime finish from Dyer.

A long ball was played into the Herne Bay defensive third and centre-half Daniel Carington didn’t come out to press Dyer, who controlled the ball before stroking a left-footed rasping drive into the top left-hand corner from 25-yards.

Dyer and Taylor have scored 35 goals between them this season and Woodward said: “A good finish by James, very good, good finish. He’s worked hard tonight and done some good stuff as well.

“James and Harry Taylor, I think Harry Taylor’s on 20 now, so it’s not a bad return.”

Collins added: “I’m annoyed about it! We got the ball in a good area and instead of putting the ball straight into the box, we tried to make the extra pass.  The ball’s then been cleared and we’ve been hit on the counter-attack.

“I felt we could’ve done a little bit better by putting the ball in the box and just keep doing the basics but that’s me being critical but disappointing goal to concede – but a great strike still.”

Dythe launched five long throws into the Herne Bay penalty area during the second half but it was meat and drink for centre-half Liam Friend, who put in a dominant performance.

“As much as you don’t want to concede a goal, we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves.  They put us under a bit of pressure and as much as you don’t want to be put under pressure, it was quite nice to see us in a time, although we were 3-1 up, we were under a little bit of pressure and we rode out that storm,” added Collins.

“With recent results, you’re worried that they’re going to get another goal and it will be a bit of a problem but it was a good reaction following their goal.”

With Erith Town bossing momentum, Herne Bay’s second striker Rowland lacked composure and tried to score from 40-yards but Brooks was able to comfortably gather the ball before it went behind for a goal-kick.

The introduction of Hill just before the hour switched Herne Bay’s formation to 4-2-1-3, with Smith and Hill in holding midfield, Heard sitting just in front of them.  Salako (left), Rowland (central) and Reid (right) were the three men up top.

Woodward told his goalkeeper Brooks to go down for treatment for a fake injury so he could call his troops over to the edge of the touch line for instructions in the 64^th minute, as Bertie Valler came off the bench to play right-wing-back as Woodward went with three at the back, with Tom Ash (right), McGeehan (central) and Jayaguru (left), with Dythe at left-win-back and Dyer was pushed further up front to play behind attackers Milton and Jeffery.

Herne Bay received a huge slice of luck in the 71^st minute when Dyer’s left-footed free-kick from close to the touchline on the right sailed over a crowd of players and pinged against the top of the far post before hitting someone and looping up and kissing the top of the crossbar before dropping over the bar.

Woodward said: “Again, no luck at the moment. We’ve just had no luck. If that hits the post and goes off for a corner and hopefully it hits the crossbar and bounces off someone and goes out for a corner.”

Collins added: “They were going to put balls into the box, they had nothing to lose and we probably earnt a little bit of luck there.

“I felt we were clinical but I felt going forward we always offered an opportunity.  They’re just not going to sit back and Woody’s teams aren’t just going to lie down and die and we probably had to ride a little bit of pressure but I felt we dealt with it quite comfortably to be honest.”

Clinical Herne Bay scored their fourth goal of the night with 28 minutes and 23 seconds on the clock, with some more poor goalkeeping.

Friend launched a left-footed volley forward from 10 yards inside the Dockers’ half, the ball was knocked down by Heard outside the box and Rowland’s left-footed chip from 22-yards went over the advanced goalkeeper and dropped to bounce into the bottom left-hand corner of an open goal to the delight of the vocal travelling fans behind the goal.

“Kane’s been brilliant as well since I’ve come in. I feel like he’s played well and he deserved his goal today.  He’s worked really hard for us,” said Collins.

“A great win from Heardy, talking about being on the front foot winning the first ball and anticipating the second and Kane’s gambled on Heardy winning the ball and it was a great finish.”

An unimpressed Woodward replied: “We did (have momentum) and we made another mistake for the fourth goal!

“Herne Bay done the right things, they just done what we done last year. They went direct, they went long, they beat people up. That’s what they done, they beat us up.

“They ran off us and tapped it into an empty goal didn’t he. We’ve lost because they’ve worked harder than us.”

When asked about his goalkeeper’s performance, Woodward, a former goalkeeper himself, replied: “I think he’ll be disappointed with some of the goals. I think he will be.”

Herne Bay recorded their largest league win of the campaign as their fifth goal of the night arrived with 33 minutes and 4 seconds on the clock.

Heard’s quickly taken free-kick caught the Dockers’ out cold and the diagonal pass fed Reid, who whipped in a high cross and Brooks palmed the ball away high to his right but it fell to Hill, who cracked a right-footed volley into the top right-hand corner from 20-yards.

“I’m saying to Heardy to ‘slow it down’ and he’s played it out to Josh and again Josh has put in another really good cross and it’s caused panic and Alfie’s taken his goal really well, so I’m really pleased and five different goalscorers tonight,” said Collins, who was asked what pleased him at Bayliss Avenue.

“The win, the work-rate.  There probably weren’t a lot that didn’t please me, obviously giving a cheap goal away with a little bit disappointing but win 5-1 away from home, it’s hard to not be pleased with stuff.

“What we’ve got to do is make sure we find some sort of consistency, albeit we’ve only lost one of the four that I’ve been in but I wanted a lot better but tonight I was pleased with how we play the conditions.

“We play on a very different pitch (an artificial one) and we’ve got to make sure we have different ways of winning games and different ways of controlling and managing games and it was a very, very good performance.”

This was Herne Bay’s first victory on the road since 19 October – when Steve Lovell was at the helm and Collins has nine games left to guide the club into calmer waters.

“Obviously, we’ve had a little bit of a tough season for whatever reason.  I can only speak from when I’ve been in,” added Collins.

“Just very pleased to get the win and relieved because that five point gap was playing on my mind a little bit so glad to take it back up to eight.

“It’s obviously where we don’t want to be. We want to try to win as many games and build momentum for next season but I thought it was important to get something tonight. It was our game in hand and we’ve seen other teams, particularly Phoenix, picking up points.

“The longer you wait for a win, the harder it becomes. It was a great win tonight, still work to do.  Teams are still capable of winning games. We still need to make sure we keep putting points on the board.

“We’re still probably looking over our shoulder but a little less pressure tonight after picking up three points.”

Woodward added: “The game was done then really wasn’t it? We sort of half knew that. The players didn’t react to the Harry palm out.

“We’ve been so good this season but we ain’t performing at the moment and it’s frustrating.  What’s that? It’s six without a win!

“We said they’ll be a time at Christmas where we might panic. Earlier in the summer me and the chairman said there would be times where we’d be hitting the panic button and at the moment I’m not overly happy with certain things.

“What we’ve got to realise is we’ve got 43 points and we would’ve bitten your hands off. Herne Bay would be happy to be in our position now. I think a lot of teams, Herne Bay and Phoenix, who we’ve played the last two weeks.

“Herne Bay and Phoenix would like to be in our position and I’d rather be in our position than there’s but there’s no disrespect to them because they’ve beaten us both times but we are where we are in the league and that’s through the work we’ve done at the start of the season, during the season, not now.

“We’ve hit a bit of a bad point. I think it’s two wins in 11 games so it ain’t great.

“I don’t think Herne Bay should be down the bottom.  They’ve got some good players but I think at the start of the season we sort of played against teams who didn’t pay us any respect.

“We knew we had to work hard to get something but now I think we’re turning up playing teams thinking we’re just going to beat them and it isn’t going to happen.”

Erith Town substitute right-winger Finley Williams did well to reach the by-line before whipping in a great cross for Milton to flick his header across goal and past the far post.

East Grinstead Town claimed a 2-1 home win over sixth-placed Beckenham Town tonight and are in 15^th place in the pecking order with 41 points from 31 games.

AFC Croydon Athletic (39 points from 32 games), Herne Bay and Littlehampton Town (35 points from 33 games) then follow.

The relegation zone still contains Phoenix Sports (27 points from 33 games), Hythe Town (22 points from 33 games), Lancing (21 points from 34 games) and Steyning Town Community (19 points from 34 games).

Herne Bay make the trip to East Grinstead Town on Saturday.

Collins said: “I think it’s going to be another tricky pitch but we go there in good form. We need to make sure we work as hard as we did tonight.  We’ve got to make sure we carry on with tonight’s performance but you start at 0-0 again.

“I watched them against Sheppey, I thought they were a good side, so it’s going to be a tough game and hopefully we can go there and pick up another three points.”

Woodward, meanwhile, takes his side to seventh-placed Three Bridges (52 points from 33 games) – a side that beat Sittingbourne 3-2 at home last weekend and the Dockers have 10 games left.

Woodward said: “A win would be nice, two or three wins would be nice to finish the season off but I tell it how it is.  I don’t see where we’re winning next!

“I think we need to completely look at some things, some players need to be looked at. There will be some difficult phone calls this week. I can’t keep defending players. I defended them in my interview (after Saturday’s goal-less draw here against East Grinstead) but I won’t defend people any more!

“I’ve got a successful under 23 side. I’ll play them, I’ll play some of them, I’ll bring some of them through.

“If you want to bounce back, you’ve got to bounce back. We bounced back with a defeat at Ashford with a win at Deal.

“This is probably up there with one of the worst nights as an Erith Town manager.  There’s been some bad ones. James was the manager the other time when we lost to Chatham and he was manager tonight, so that’s two nights he’s made my top three now.  Two of the three bad nights for Erith have been with him in the dug-out so we’ve got to make sure we turn up for the return leg (on Saturday 12 April).”

Erith Town: Harry Brooks, Tom Ash, Andrew Dythe, Aaron Jeffery, Jerome Jayaguru, Calum McGeehan (Finley Avery 90), James Dyer, Ross Craig, George Goodwin (Ollie Milton 46), James Miles (Finley Williams 83), Gael Kileba (Bertie Valler 64).
Sub: Luke Leppard

Goal: James Dyer 50

Booked: James Miles 47

Herne Bay: Harley Earle, Myles Judd, Fenn Roberts, Ethan Smith (Kane Haysman 83), Liam Friend, Daniel Carrington, Oluwakemi Osinfolarin (Alfie Hill 58), Scott Heard, Michael Salako, Kane Rowland (Vincent Bowman 89), Joshua Reid (Artem Kuchkov 87).
Sub: Skye Salmon

Goals: Joshua Reid 17, Scott Heard 37, Michael Salako 44, Kane Rowland 74, Alfie Hill 79

Booked: Ethan Smith 21, Joshua Reid 51, Michael Salako 66

Attendance: 102
Referee: Mr Michael Scott
Assistants: Mr Leigh Ballinger & Mr Adam Miller