I will get Herne Bay into Ryman South, says Simon Halsey

HERNE BAY manager Simon Halsey says he will pick up his troops in time for their trip to Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday night.



It felt like the end of the world at the final whistle when West Auckland Town celebrated their 2-1 victory over Herne Bay in the FA Carlsberg Vase Semi-Final Second Leg up at Darlington Road yesterday, as the third-placed Northern League outfit booked their place in a Wembley Final for the first time in their history with a 4-3 aggregate win.

Herne Bay definitely missed their suspended leading goalscorer Byron Walker in the North East yesterday, as it was West Auckland Town striker Michael Rae’s two goals that sent the home side through, despite playing with ten-men for the last 43 minutes after Andrew Green saw red for elbowing Herne Bay skipper Luke Harvey.

The dream seemed on for the Kent side after left-back Tom Bryant produced a striker’s finish in the 12^th minute of the game, but the football gods were not on Herne Bay’s side.

Herne Bay remain at the top of the Kent Hurlimann Football League table, but Erith & Belvedere have closed the gap to only two points, although Halsey’s heroes have four games in hand over Micky Collins’ side.

Erith & Belvedere fought back from being 3-1 down at half-time, to beat Beckenham Town 4-3 at Park View Road yesterday.  Striker, Andy Constable’s hat-trick took his goalscoring tally to 31 goals for the season.

Halsey hopes yesterday was the club’s last FA Vase outing as promotion into the Ryman League will see the club take part in the FA Carlsberg Trophy.

“We just have to keep our noses (in front).  I’ve heard a couple of results today (VCD Athletic were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by bottom side Deal Town), and they’ve gone our way,” said Halsey.

“Who knows what’s going to happen now.  It’s in our hands.  As I’ve said to you before, I was brought to the club to get them out of the Kent League and into Ryman South and that journey that we’ve just been on has been magnificent but I’ve got to get Herne Bay Football Club into Ryman South and I will do that.”

Central defender, Steve Hanson, is expected to be ruled out of their trip to Culverden Stadium as he was forced off after 42 minutes yesterday, through a re-occurance of his hamstring injury.

Halsey said: “It weren’t a risk to play him, he was ok and he got through it and to be fair I thought he set the stall for our game.  He was strong for those first twenty minutes.  He headed everything, cleared everything.”

Reflecting on their epic eight-match FA Vase campaign, which saw them beat Winchester City, Hanworth Villa (after a replay), Newcastle Benfield, Larkhall Athletic and Shortwood United, before suffering a heartbreaking semi-final exit, Halsey looked back on it with a sense of pride.

“A great journey for me, my players and the whole club,” he said yesterday.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ll never thought this year, next year, whenever, to get to the semi-final of the FA Vase.

“No-one remembers the semi-finalists - I know that, but I’ll remember it and the players will remember.  It will put us in good stead.”

Herne Bay must collect ten points from their last remaining eight league games to ensure they will be locking horns with arch-rivals Whitstable Town in the Ryman League Division One South next season.

Halsey said: “They know what they have to do.  They’ve known all along this (FA Vase run) was a side attraction and we know what we have to do – win the Kent League and we’ll win it!”

Tunbridge Wells, meanwhile, are in fifth-place in the table, ten points behind Herne Bay, with six games left to play.

They will play Herne Bay again, at Winch’s Field, on Easter Monday, 9 April.

Tunbridge Wells Manager Martin Larkin told www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk:  “We have some very tough games.  We are going to be tested twice by Herne Bay.”

The Culverden Stadium outfit finished in sixth-place last season and Larkin is pleased that his side have made progress.

He said:  “We are actually aware we can eclipse last year’s efforts again – however that’s not enough.  And to be honest we won’t really be too happy with fifth-place either.  We want to break into that top three.  Unfortunately so do VCD, the two Erith teams and Beckenham, so it is going to be a tough ask!

“We have looked to improve each year in terms of points, goals scored/conceded and finish in the table and that is all we can look to do again, but we will certainly put everything into these last remaining six games and then add the points up at the end of the year and see where we finish.”

Larkin, meanwhile, responded to claims made by Fisher manager Steve Firkins last month, who claimed that Tunbridge Wells are throwing money at their team.

He said: “There has been a lot of chat from other managers about our playing budget and how we will be increasing it for next year.  That doesn’t bother me too much. If they are thinking about us they aren’t doing what they should be doing and thinking about themselves!

“The facts are that a lot of money will have been spent in the Kent League again this year, but not a penny by us, so it will be nice to finish as high up as we can to show how it can be done.”

Larkin believed three key ingredients are essential that money can’t buy.

He said:  “Belief, work rate and desire.  They are the three things we build our methods around.   We have a lot of talent in the changing room and we just need to believe how good we actually are.

“Work rate and desire are given requirements in the Kent League.  If you don’t turn up with those you won’t win the game, it’s as simple as that.”

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

Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk

Tunbridge Wells  v  Herne Bay
Kent Hurlimann Football League
Tuesday 3^rd April 2012
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Culverden Stadium, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9SG