Herne Bay manager James Collins relishing chance to mould Isthmian South East side’s young players this season

James Collins is relishing the chance to help mould Herne Bay’s talented young players this season.

Defender Fenn Roberts, midfielder Alfie Hill and striker Vinnie Bowman have been among the Bay youth-team prospects to be handed senior opportunities since Collins became boss in February.

Monty Saunders, a midfielder by trade, was also handed a start in an unfamiliar defensive role in last weekend’s 1-0 Isthmian South East loss at play-off chasing Merstham.

Collins said: “That was Monty’s first game at left-back for me. It was his first start.

“I didn’t know if he could play there or not. Skye Salmon was good at right-back and Sinnkaye Christie - after about a month out - did well at centre-half.

"Fenn Roberts and Alfie Hill have had lots of game-time, as well, recently.

“It’s good as a coach to give them opportunities to mould them into players you want to mould them in to.

“Monty put in a good performance after being ill all week. It was just a shame he had to come off.”

It was a second successive loss for Herne Bay - albeit both coming against teams challenging at the right-end of the table - as they dealt without defenders Dan Carrington and Myles Judd at Merstham.

“We did okay again,” reflected Collins, who played Ethan Smith after the midfielder's red card during their 2-0 home defeat to Burgess Hill was successfully overturned last week. “We had quite a few players missing so the squad was a bit stretched.

“We’ve had a bit of illness floating around, as well, and players had to come off that weren’t feeling great. But we did okay with what we had. We’re just not quite at that level.

“It was a case of, if you’re in the play-offs, you find a way to win that one but, if you’re 17th, you find a way to lose.

“The