We’ve got nothing to fear

Herne Bay

Herne Bay should have nothing to fear when they kick off their season at title favourites Hastings United, says boss Ben Smith.

His team head to a side who have topped the Isthmian League South East table during the last two seasons before they were scrapped but has every confidence his own team can be in the mix. He said: “I think a lot of teams will beat each other this season, It will be the closest from top to bottom as it has ever been. We can say they (Hastings) are the big spenders, this or that, that they are the biggest club, which they are, but there are a lot of other clubs trying to catch them and emulate that and we are one of them. “When we are looking at favourites for the league, they have to be, because of what they have done but it doesn’t work like that.

“Both games we have played them over the last two season we have been more than in the game, we just didn’t take our chances and they scored a late one in the last game where we were down to 10 men for a long time.

“We will take confidence from the previous performances we have put in down there. What they have done in the past in terms of league standings means nothing, you get no points for that, we can expect a difficult game but we won’t go there and roll over, that is certainly not in our thought process.”

Leaving Bay this summer has been Tushaun-tyreese Walters who has joined Maidstone, midfielder Anthony Edgar has joined FC Romania after setting up a new business, Bradley Stevenson went to Welling and keeper George Kamurasi has departed. Smith has replaced Kamurasi with former Arsenal and Wigan junior Jordan Perrin. Wideman Adem Ramadan brings in extra experience, as does Tom Phipp and left-back Jack Parter.

■ Canterbury were knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle last Saturday, losing 3-0 at Balham.

They return to Southern Counties East action at home to Hollands & Blair on Saturday and at Kennington on Tuesday.