The commitee are making the same old mistakes again, says former Herne Bay chairman Trevor Kennett

TREVOR KENNETT has explained why he stepped down as Herne Bay’s chairman after nearly two season at the helm on Friday.



“Herne Bay Football Club has received the resignation of its chairman, Trevor Kennett, following a disagreement regarding the wishes of directors and the management committee in relation to an internal disciplinary matter,” said a club statement, which was posted on the club’s official website.

“The Football Club respects Trevor’s decision to resign as both chairman and a director of Herne Bay FC C-i-C with immediate effect and would like to record its thanks for his contributions to, and work for, the Football Club.

“Bill Dordoy, the current vice-chairman and director will undertake the role of chairman for the remainder of the 2013/14 season.

“The Football Club wishes Trevor Kennett the best of good wishes for his future.”

Herne Bay, who are managed by Sam Denly, came away from struggling Redhill with a 2-1 win yesterday, courtesy of two late goals from Jamie O’Connell and Danny Walder’s penalty.

The club are in fifteenth-place in the Ryman League Division One South table, with 11 wins and 8 draws from 32 games.

Mr Kennett, 51, has issued the following statement following his decision to stand down from both of his roles at Winch’s Field.

“Well, it was a strange thing.  I think the club has struggled a little bit.  I think in Sam we’ve got a fairly new and inexperienced manager. We’ve got a young squad and to be honest that’s what the club wanted.  We wanted to return back to more of a local club.  The other night nine of the starting eleven were Herne Bay (based) lads.

“Unfortunately with that inexperience comes naivety and inexperience so we’ve had a bit of a disciplinary problem.  Sam is learning fast and he’s learning that there’s a fine line between passion and abuse to officials.

“Basically we’ve recently had a number of bookings and Sam’s got a FA charge about swearing to the referee and that type of form.

“The club has obviously been fined and Sam will be fined I’m sure.  We’ve got some bookings. My view on it was – and I’ve been sitting down with Sam over time talking to him and he’s getting better and he’s learning – but he’s not perfect and he’s still naive.

“I said to him the committee were very concerned about the bookings and the cost to the club and felt it needed to take some internal action and my view on it was we sit down with Sam.

“The club has been fined the best part of £1,000 over a period of time. Next week there will be no wages. The players are going to pay for that.

“I’ve worked hard this season to build a good relationship between the playing staff, management and the committee.

“Anyway, at the committee meeting the committee decided it wanted to go a lot further than that – fine the players and come up with a whole raft of punishments and fines – all bookings and everything.  I thought that was over the top and I said so.

“A letter was created from me for the club, from the chairman, from me, outlining all these new penalties to the players.  I basically said I don’t agree with it – it’s an over-reaction. It’s going to have a negative impact.

“I’m not happy with it! I’m not prepared to sign it!

“So what basically happened the vote took place and I was overruled 8 to 1 – I think it was and I said that sort of shows a no confidence vote in me. That’s how I took it. Then what happened unfortunately the letter was sent to Sam from me unsigned and I said to them hang on a minute! You can’t do that! You can’t send a letter from the chairman when I haven’t agreed the content and I haven’t signed it!

“You know I’m not happy and I don’t agree with it!

“In the end there was some unreasonably unpleasant conversations between me and a few of the directors and in the end I felt I was pushed into a corner and I wasn’t happy with this.

“What this decision is going to do is really going to upset the players and upset the apple cart.

“You actually say in the letter that I don’t agree with that Sam’s doing well and getting us into a position and we have to accept his experience and it’s a mixed message and it’s going to cause a lot of upset and in the end I just said you know what this is viewed is a no confidence vote in me.

“I’m the chairman, I’m supposed to be viewed as the leader of the organisation in affect. I don’t always expect to get my own way, it’s not like that.  I just think this is fundamentally wrong and in the end I had no other choice.

“I just thought I can’t be chairman so I stood down as chairman initially.  I was then still a director of Herne Bay FC C-i-C.

“There was quite a disrespectful email from one of the directors to me and I said I know what I’ll resign as a director now.

“I’ve got nothing to do with the club, which is a sad, sad day for me because I’ve worked very hard with the rest of the committee members to get Herne Bay where it is.

“It took 125 years’ to get promoted. It’s only our second season in the Ryman and I just think with this decision the committee are making the same old mistakes again that we made in our first season in the Ryman.

“You can’t employ someone with no experience and bash them for not having experience. It doesn’t make sense!

“Herne Bay isn’t a club that’s all about its chairman and certainly not about me. It’s been around a long time. It’s built on firm foundations and it’s got some very good people on its committee and it will continue. It will just carry on.

“Bill Dordoy is a great bloke and he’ll take over as chairman until the end of the season.

“They’ve got a lot of experience in the club. At the moment my understanding is that Sam has got the new regime – the unsigned letter as it were – he hasn’t discussed it with the players yet.  What affect that has on Sam, the players or the coaches, I don’t know.

“My advice for Sam was to stick at it. He’s doing a great job. Keep his head down and keep going.

“What will happen on the playing side, I have absolutely no idea!

“I’m looking forward to a little bit of a rest, although I did get a call from a club on Friday asking me to go and talk to them about me being their chairman, which was interesting.

“I’m just going to put my feet up for a while and go and watch some non-league football. Saturday is football day as far as I’m concerned. It’s in your blood.”

The club said that they would be making no further comment on the subject.

The Bay travel to Folkestone Invicta on Tuesday night.

Visit Herne Bay’s website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/hernebay