Herne Bay player-boss Liam Friend didn’t see poor first-half display coming from his team as Bay end 2025 with 3-1 Isthmian South East home derby defeat against Margate

Player-manager Liam Friend didn’t see Herne Bay’s poor first-half display coming in last weekend’s derby defeat.

Bay hosted fellow play-off chasing Isthmian South East side Margate on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, having ended Jersey Bulls’ unbeaten home record seven days earlier.

But they quickly found themselves behind at Winch’s Field and, while forward Steven Townsend equalised after midfielder Bode Anidugbe’s penalty was saved by Gate No.1 Tom Wray, two more first-half goals by Sam Blackman - his second a spot-kick - ensured Margate were 3-1 winners.

Friend said: “I was really disappointed and annoyed with our showing in the first 45 minutes.

“There was a really good crowd, it was the perfect day for football and, after the previous weekend’s performance and result, but especially the performance, I didn’t see our first-half showing coming.

“There are two really poor individual errors for the first two goals. There’s no getting away from the fact that there’s absolutely no reason for the first goal to go in at all.

“It’s not particularly well struck from a central area and God knows how far out, and it’s not really a shot. It’s a ball into an area so I was very disappointed.

“The second goal, we’re in absolutely no danger.

"It’s a bit of an over-hit cross and our player is on his own and, if they don’t get the goal, it’s potentially a penalty where he heads it (his attempted back-pass) against his hand, anyway, so I’m not particularly pleased.

“We’re a little bit disappointed with the third goal because we don’t feel it was a penalty. We think [we] got the ball first and, having looked at it again, we stand by that.

“We just seemed to lack a little bit of spark, energy and legs. It looked like we had played