Herne Bay boss Ben Smith hits back at criticism from club's own fans after win against Lewes; Bognor Regis Town next up

Manager Ben Smith wants more understanding - from a section of Herne Bay’s own fans!

Bay have had a challenging start to their inaugural Isthmian Premier season and have been knocked out of the FA Cup and the FA Trophy, losing 2-1 in the latter competition to Bishop’s Stortford last Saturday despite in-form Rory Smith’s first-half effort.

It was always likely to be a campaign of consolidation at a higher level but they found form on Tuesday to blow Lewes away in a 40-minute first-half spell during a 4-1 home win.

Smith has been irked by the criticism he has faced by the same small section of fans before, who were vocal towards the end of last season with the club just outside the play-offs. They then went on a run to make the play-offs and then earn promotion.

“The players know they can do it,” said Smith. “Doing it is a different thing but the players know how good they are.

“What doesn’t help is when you have sections of your own supporters jumping on their backs because they are not winning every game in this league. It doesn’t work like that.

“We have got promoted and, suddenly, some people are jumping on a negative at every opportunity.

“It’s the same people, any time we lose, they start getting vocal. When we are winning, you don’t hear anything from them - and some of them know absolutely zero about football.

"Quite frankly, they are a disgrace.

“But the majority of our fans that travel home and away are absolutely superb. Look at the club now. When we came in, the club, in the league below, were probably going to get relegated and possibly going to fold - it had nothing going for it.

“Yet, we’re nine games into a season, haven’t quite got the points we wanted and we are the worst players and the worst management