Bridges out of Trophy

Bridges exited from the F A Trophy, but at least they showed a few glimpses of improvement from previous losses at Ashford and at ‘home’ to Littlehampton.

Reece Hallard was only just over with a decent early effort, but it was Herne Bay who took the lead after only five minutes with question marks over the visiting defence. A free kick just outside the area invited Scott Heard to clip it goalwards and the unmarked KANE HAYSMAN gratefully headed past Luke Glover.

Bridges tried to respond with both Hayden Velvick and Jamie Splatt coming close, but with five of their last six games seeing them keep clean sheets, Herne Bay rarely looked alarmed.

The homesters had their own chances with an excellent overlap on the right by Jack Parter finishing with a good low save at his near post by Glover, but Bridges should have levelled before the interval. A good low ball across the face of goal from Hallard ended with Nordibek Bobomurodov being denied by keeper Harry Brooks, but it was a bad miss by Bobomurodov following another great run by Hallard two minutes before half time that proved crucial.

Instead of the sides going in level at the break, on the stroke of half time, Ethan Smith took advantage of being given time and space to lob the ball into the danger area and HEARD simply couldn’t miss with no one challenging him! Bridges Manager Jamie Crellin, a top defender in his playing days, must have cringed at the simplicity of it all!

A long ball after 56 minutes ended with a good finish by ARTEM KUCHKOV for Herne Bay’s third, and the game inevitably drifted into a complacent afternoon in the sun with only a decent self created low effort by Elliott Hanslow causing momentary alarm in the home defence.