Herne Bay player-boss Liam Friend hoping to have found long overdue No.1 as keeper Joe Coleman starts in pre-season friendlies against Hollands & Blair and Kennington

Player-boss Liam Friend hopes he has found a long overdue Herne Bay No.1 ahead of the new season.

Bay were 5-0 home winners against Hollands & Blair on Saturday, having started their pre-season campaign with last midweek’s 3-1 victory over Kennington at Winch’s Field.

Joe Coleman saved a first-half penalty against Dan Scorer’s outfit before he kept a clean sheet against Blair after linking up with the Isthmian South East club from Hythe.

Defender Friend said: “In the first game, he played 80-odd minutes.

“Then, we had a young goalie, Will (Underdown), who played. He made a couple of decent saves in the time he got.

“Will would have got longer - but he had about 10 pairs of socks on - so he got a bit of stick for that!

“Joe was good in that game and then got a clean sheet on Saturday.

“He came through the full game, although I would like to think my goalkeeper would be able to play 90 minutes.

“He has already got involved with my general criticism of goalies that I think they should catch and save everything - but he probably would say similar about us as defenders!

"He’s a good size and seems like a great lad.

“Last year, we had seven goalies. That’s too many.

"We need to lock that position down and I hope Joe is the man to do it.”

Kane Haysman’s first-half penalty, plus late goals from Oscar Webb and Tyler Sterling, saw off Kennington.

Josh Reid, Kane Rowland, Josh Oliver, Alfie Bloomfield and Artem Kuchkov were on target against Blair.

“We’ve been really pleased,” admitted Friend, whose side host Phoenix Sports this weekend and Chipstead on Tuesday night.

“A couple of players have definitely impressed and, as a group, the work ethic has definitely impressed.

“The first game we played, we looked like a new team - which