Herne Bay look to see off Sheppey United for the third time already this season - in the Velocity Cup - after midweek Isthmian South East home success

Herne Bay will aim to complete a unique treble of victories this Saturday.

Liam Friend’s team host Sheppey United in the Velocity Cup second round, aiming to build on their midweek 2-0 Isthmian South East home success over VCD.

Incredibly - having played just 12 fixtures in all competitions this season - it will already be the third time Bay have come up against Kevin Watson’s men at Winch’s Field!

“I’ve never known anything like it at all but that’s football - it throws it up,” admitted Bay player-boss Friend, whose side were 4-2 league winners over the Ites last month before a 3-0 Kent Senior Cup success seven days later.

“It’s another game and we need some games because we’re still a new team and we want to get to know each other a bit more.

“We are struggling a little bit at the moment. We had another two injuries on Tuesday and I got a whack on the back in the last minute.

“We’ll have a bit of a roll-call at training on Thursday and go from there.”

While the Velocity Cup often presents clubs with the chance to rotate their pack, Friend might not have much of a pack to rotate, with defenders Frankie Smith and Joe Alatise not fit enough to feature against VCD.

Friend said: “We probably have got four, maybe five, players that had no pre-season at all.

“Then, we’ve had a few games, had a bit of a break for two weeks and we’re still trying to get minutes into people.

“Harvey Brand still probably needs to get a few more games under his belt. He had zero pre-season because of a foot injury.

“It’s one of those where we can use it as a competitive game and to get some minutes into people.

“Usually, you’d play squad players but, with most of our squad players, they’re in the team!

“We’ll see but we’re not ones to complain