Despite there being no football to report on it is our intention to carry on with these weekly updates to include any club news, facts from this campaign, items from the Club’s archives and the pandemic as it affects us. This will only happen if there are enough people wanting it, so please don’t be shy, let us know your thoughts. The current state of play of football at the club is: The FA - professional football suspended until 30th April National League System - fixtures suspended First Team - League suspended until 3rd April Women's - League is suspended for foreseeable future U13, U14 & U16 Kent Youth League - League suspended up to and including 5th April Training - The following has been decided by the Club based on advice from The FA First Team - Training is suspended until further notice Women's - Training is suspended for foreseeable future U13, U14, U16 - Training is suspended until further notice Isthmian League Division One South East Leading Goalscorers 2019/20 Zak Ansah 24 Herne Bay 14 goals, 10 penalties David Smith 20 Ashford United 19 goals, 1 penalty Ben Pope 18 Hastings United 11 goals, 7 penalties Ronnie Sobowale 17 Whyteleafe 16 goals, 1 penalty Aaron Condon 14 Ashford United 12 goals, 2 penalties Warren Mfula 14 Cray Valley PM (6) 12 goals, 2 penalties /Burgess Hill Town (8) Zak Ansah signed for Herne Bay in July 2019 and he introduced himself to the Bay faithful with a hat-trick in the first 33 minutes of an enthralling pre-season encounter at SCEFL First Division Snodland Town. He went on to score four against Erith & Belvedere and one against both Rochester United and Felixstowe & Walton United to take his pre-season tally to nine. With 24 league goals this is the best single season haul, overtaking the 23 scored by Jake Embury in 2017/18. For league and cup Zak’s 28 goals has eclipsed Jake Embury’s 25 in 2017/18. Danny Walder netted ten league and cup penalties in 2015/16 and that record has also been beaten by Zak with 11 this time out. Bearing in mind that there have been 38 league and cup matches this campaign whilst in 2017/18 there were 54 games and in 2015/16 58, this is an incredible achievement. With the way that the wingers and midfielders drive into the penalty area terrifying the opposition defence it is no surprise that there have been so many penalties, and all for fouls! The offences have been committed against Tushaun-Tyreese Walters four times, Keiron Campbell three times and once each against Chris Saunders, Ryan King-Elliott, Bradley Stevenson and Anthony Edgar. Zak’s goals have been: 17/08/2018 League Whyteleafe away 1 (1p) 20/08/2019 League Phoenix Sports home 2 (1p) 24/08/2018 FA Cup AFC Croydon Athletic home 2 03/09/2019 FA Cup AFC Croydon Athletic away 1 17/09/2019 League Ramsgate away 2 19/10/2019 League Guernsey home 2 (2p) 26/10/2019 League Three Bridges away 2 02/11/2019 League East Grinstead Town home 1 (1p) 12/11/2019 League Cup Whitstable Town away 1 (1p) 16/11/2019 League Ashford United home 1 30/11/2019 League Sevenoaks Town home 1 07/12/2019 League VCD Athletic away 2 01/01/2020 League Whitstable Town home 1 (1p) 04/01/2020 League Cray Valley PM away 1 (1p) 18/01/2020 League Guernsey away 1 (1p) 04/02/2020 League Ramsgate home 2 08/02/2020 League Haywards Heath Town away 1 11/02/2020 League Faversham Town away 1 22/02/2020 League Three Bridges home 1 07/03/2020 League Sittingbourne home 2 (2p) Zak Ansah 28 (11p) Ramsgate 4, AFC Croydon Athletic 3, Guernsey 3 (3p), Three Bridges 3, Phoenix Sports 2 (1p), Sittingbourne 2 (2p), VCD Athletic 2, Whitstable Town 2 (2p), Ashford United 1, Cray Valley PM 1 (1p), East Grinstead Town 1 (1p), Faversham Town 1, Haywards Heath Town 1, Sevenoaks Town 1, Whyteleafe 1 (1p), Over 60% of Zak’s goals have been scored in the second half. First half minutes 8 Penalty Whitstable Town away League Cup 15 Goal Faversham Town away League 21 Penalty Sittingbourne home League 26 Goal Ramsgate away League 26 Penalty Whitstable Town home League 29 Goal AFC Croydon Athletic home FA Cup 31 Goal Haywards Heath Town away League 44 Goal Phoenix Sports home League 45 Goal Ashford United home League 45 Goal VCD Athletic away League 45 Penalty Guernsey away League Second half minutes 47 Goal AFC Croydon Athletic away FA Cup 47 Penalty Guernsey home League 50 Goal Three Bridges away League 50 Goal VCD Athletic away League 52 Goal Ramsgate away League 55 Goal Sevenoaks Town home League 56 Goal Ramsgate away League 64 Penalty East Grinstead Town home League 66 Goal Ramsgate away League 67 Penalty Cray Valley PM away League 67 Goal Three Bridges home League 78 Goal Three Bridges away League 78 Penalty Sittingbourne home League 88 Penalty Phoenix Sports home League 90 Penalty Whyteleafe away League 90 Goal AFC Croydon Athletic home FA Cup 90 Penalty Guernsey home League FROM THE ARCHIVES – THE PAST WEEK IN HERNE BAY’S ISTHMIAN LEAGUE HISTORY 2012/2013 Wednesday Ramsgate H L 0-2 194 20/03/2013 Luke Nalder, Nathan Eastwood, Tom Bryant, Calum McGeehan, James Campbell, Sam Bewick, Dean Grant, Ben Brown (Billy Bennett), Byron Walker, James Turner (Jordan Agbajae), Rhys Lawson. On another day the result could well have been very different as the midfields of both sides fought for supremacy. Chances were few and far between and unfortunately for Herne Bay the best two fell to Ramsgate’s prolific striker Ian Pulman who put both away with ease. P W D L F A GD Pts. Pos. 31 9 10 12 36 49 13 37 16th Manager Simon Halsey was disappointed with his side’s position in the table in their inaugural campaign at this level. ”I’m absolutely sick of losing to teams that are up in the top six and they ain’t no better than us and that’s the long and short of it,” said Halsey, ”We’ve been better away from home. We know that. Much better away from home. We’ve moved up a level ain’t we? Better players. Better teams. Better individuals. Better collectively. We’ve not adapted to it yet.” Saturday Corinthian-Casuals H Match Postponed – Snow Covered Pitch 23/03/2013 2013/2014 Tuesday Folkestone Invicta A L 1-2 Nelder 211 18/03/2014 Jack Delo, Michael Turner (Jordan Casey), Gary Sayer, Danny Walder, Connor Sanders, George Benner, Harry Brown, Ben Brown, Stuart King, Jamie O’Connell (James Turner), Dean Grant (Joe Nelder). It was Folkestone who were to score first. As early as the third minute they forced their first corner of the game. It was cleared but possession given up as Invicta swept the ball out to the right and the resulting cross picked out Frankie Chappell, unmarked, in the area and his sweet volley rocketed past Jack Delo. With the clock ticking toward the interval, Connor Sanders upended Johan Ter Horst just to the right of the penalty area, the home side failed to set their defensive wall sufficient to cover the near post and Chris Elliott slotted his free kick through the vacant gap and inside the post with Delo guarding the far stick. After the break, Herne Bay showed much energy and were duly rewarded just after the hour when Joe Nelder, on as a substitute a matter of minutes, strode through the Folkestone defence and drove home past Tim Roberts. P W D L F A GD Pts. Pos. 33 11 8 14 53 54 -1 41 17th Saturday Chipstead H L 1-2 King (p) 180 22/03/2014 Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Gary Sayer, Danny Walder (Jordan Casey), Connor Sanders (Jamie O’Connell), Nathan Eastwood, Harry Brown, Ben Brown, Stuart King, James Turner, Dean Grant (Sam Hasler). The visitors drew first blood when Ben Brown was adjudged to have fouled Sam Charles just inside the penalty area and Will Turl made no mistake form 12 yards sending Jack Delo the wrong way. Chipstead pulled further ahead on 66 though when Turl grabbed his second of the game when put through from a neat back heel on the edge of the Bay box. Jordan Casey won a penalty for Bay when he was brought down after a strong run into the box with 13 minutes left. Stuart King stepped up and powered home left footed to end his goal drought and give the Bay supporters a glimmer of hope. Sam Denly said ‘’That was not good enough at all, there were no excuses for it, we were really poor. I have defended the players to the hilt this season and we set them up the right way but we just didn’t turn up, we were really below par and it was unacceptable. We didn’t perform at all. We have performed for 45 minutes on a lot of occasions this season and it’s not good enough, we got to be performing for 70 to 80 minutes at least to have a chance and the game was lost by the time we got a goal back. We had a couple of chances after that to equalise, but it wouldn’t have been deserved, we didn’t deserve anything. We are a long way off the bottom three but two, three, four defeats in a row and all of a sudden we are in dangerous territory again.