Herne Bay player-manager Liam Friend welcomes side’s fixture-free weekend as Bay dealt injury blow to defender Joe Tyrie

Player-boss Liam Friend has welcomed Herne Bay’s fixture-free weekend.

Bay endured mixed fortunes over the Bank Holiday weekend as they went down 2-1 at home to Deal on Monday after Saturday’s 2-1 Isthmian South East success at Erith Town.

To make matters worse, Bay also lost centre-back Joe Tyrie to a broken ankle in the early stages of the second half against the Hoops.

It’s an area Friend expects to strengthen as he targets a new defensive partner, with his team without a competitive clash on Saturday due to their exit from the FA Cup.

He said: “We need this break to get a couple of the boys fit.

"Some haven’t been playing and some have been playing with knocks.

“I will probably need to strengthen in the centre-half area, as well, due to Joe Tyrie’s broken ankle.

“We haven’t really had too much time training.

"In pre-season, you have a lot of games and you’re sort of managing minutes.

"I think we’ll have at least three - maybe four - training sessions before our next game [against Ashford in the FA Trophy next weekend].

“But just because we lost on Monday, that doesn’t mean we’re doing that badly. The performance wasn’t great but it’s not like we have lost five in five.

“I’m sure everyone above us will want these training sessions and we’re no different. Sometimes in football, you can have one of those days like we did on Monday.

“But my job as manager is to make sure we don’t have many - if any - more this season.”

Against Deal, Herne Bay fell behind in 15 minutes in front of a crowd of 589 at Winch’s Field and, although midfielder Harvey Brand equalised, Steve King’s side won it with the game’s all-important third goal with 12 minutes to play.

“We started really poorly,” said Friend of their defeat. “I was really