My expectations are to do the best we can and win as many games as we can, says Simon Halsey

HERNE BAY manager Simon Halsey says he will maintain his side’s eye-catching passing game in the Ryman League Division One South this season.



Halsey, 47, guided the club to the Kent League title and FA Carlsberg Vase semi-finals last season and they play their inaugural game in the Ryman League on Saturday when Tooting & Mitcham United visit Winch’s Field.

Halsey admits to going through a transitional period during pre-season as a handful of players that performed so well last year have jumped ship and have signed for league rivals Faversham Town.

When asked about pre-season, Rainham-based Halsey said: “Very good.   Transitional for Herne Bay Football Club first and foremost, but transitional squad wise and player wise, our formation we’re playing, so it’s been upbeat really.

“I’m a little bit more advanced than I expected to be so all in all I’m well pleased.”

Halsey just cannot wait for the club’s historic game at the weekend.

He said: “It seems ages that last game of the season in the Kent League. I want to get Saturday underway really.

“It’s a hard start for us, Tooting & Mitcham and Hythe in the first two games. It’s a big ask for us this year but I wanted to win the Kent League with Herne Bay and get in there and I’ve done that.

“I wanted to manage them in the Ryman League and I’m over the moon to lead them out in the Ryman League on Saturday.”

Halsey has done his homework on his first opponents at this level.

When asked what attributes Tooting & Mitcham United have, Halsey replied, “Fast! A lot of pace, a passing side, hopefully. I’ve had them looked at so I do actually know they can pass the ball and they’ll be very quick.

“We’re not going to worry about too much about them – they’ll be worried about us!

“We’ll set our stall out and that’s what we’re going to try and do and make ourselves hard to beat and if we can do that for the first month, six weeks of the season we’ll be ok, once we’ve bedded in.

When asked what the Winch’s Field faithful can look forward to, the Herne Bay boss replied, “Exactly the same, if not a little bit more.  We’ve done nothing different this season.

“We’ll keep passing the ball, even more so this season with the personnel that’s come in. As for the footballing side of it they won’t see anything untoward. It will results wise, this year, maybe a little bit different.

“My expectations are to do the best we can and win as many games as we can.  We’ve got to be realistic.  We’ve stepped up to the higher level of football. We’re not going to only lose 10 league games in two seasons so it’s going to be different.

Halsey tells fans to, “Stay patient and back myself and the team if things aren’t going well, we’ll turn the corner.

“Pre-season has gone spot on so hopefully there won’t be too many corners to turn and we can get straight into it.”

Halsey looks to the yardstick set by Hythe Town, who pipped them to a dramatic Kent League title race twelve months earlier.

Scott Porter’s side started their inaugural Ryman League campaign slowly and it took a Boxing Day thrashing at Folkestone Invicta to kick them into life and they finished in a respectable eighth-place in the table.

They also stunned the likes of Ebbsfleet United, Dover Athletic and Dartford to win the Kent Senior Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

“Hythe have gone up there and done superb so have Faversham and Ramsgate were even better when they went up,” said Halsey, on teams that have done well after clinching promotion out of the Kent League.

“I want to do the best we can, no matter what. Hopefully we’ll set our stall out and the squad will be good enough to put us in the same sort of bracket but we won’t know for the first six to eight weeks.”

And Halsey just cannot wait to take his side to Reachfields Stadium to lock horns against rivals Hythe Town next Tuesday.

Halsey said: “Absolutely love it. I’ve missed it last season to be fair. They’ve gone up and we haven’t been down there at all.

“In my interviews, I’ve said before it’s a great place to go.  It will be hostile but that’s all part of it on a Tuesday night.

“They’ve done exceptionally well, exceptionally well last year and in all honestly we expected them to do well when they went up and they’ve continued to do that.”

But Halsey warned: “Every game is going to be tough this year. I’m under no illusions. We’re a young squad, younger than we had last year. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll relish it.  The players are looking forward to it. The ones that I’ve brought in will have enough about them and will prove their worth in the Ryman.”

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

Herne Bay  v  Tooting & Mitcham United
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 18^th August 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Winch’s Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG