Herne Bay player-manager Liam Friend on 1-0 FA Cup exit at Hollands & Blair and starting their Isthmian South East season with matches against Hassocks and Sheppey United

Liam Friend felt Herne Bay’s below-par performance in their FA Cup loss to lower-division opponents had come out of nowhere.

The Isthmian South East side were inched out 1-0 at Southern Counties East League Premier Division Hollands & Blair last weekend, failing to convert a first-half penalty, in the extra preliminary round tie.

Herne Bay had enjoyed a largely positive run of warm-up matches, playing the likes of Isthmian Premier teams Dartford and Welling.

New player-boss Friend is remaining level-headed, however, despite being defeated at the start of their competitive campaign.

“If you had asked me on Saturday, I would have been ultra-critical,” said defender Friend, who opted against playing himself because of illness.

“I’m still a bit annoyed about the result but we did miss a penalty and a rebound that we should have scored.

“In the second half, Rhys Wyborn and Kane Haysman had good chances and Alfie (Bloomfield) made Dan Ellis make a good save.

“It only takes one of them to go in and - like Deal and Faversham and whoever else - we have got a replay. Then, it’s not done and dusted at the game.

“We were really disappointed with our performance that came out of nowhere a little bit.

“Throughout our pre-season, we’d had some really good performances and some really good results. We had one against Phoenix Sports (a 2-0 loss) we were annoyed about that, but that set us in good stead for the rest of pre-season.

“It’s disappointing that, when it got real, seven or eight of them didn’t put in a seven out of 10 performance. Three players came out with some credit and the rest didn’t.

“The most important thing now is to bounce back.”

With only one player in the starting line-up who featured in last season’s final game, an