Herne Bay return to Broadfields United in the FA Cup extra preliminary round replay with Corinthian awaiting the winners –Ben Smith’s side beat Harrow Borough in the FA Trophy on Saturday

Herne Bay are heading back to Broadfields United tonight – a week after thrashing them 6-1 in their FA Cup extra preliminary round replay.

Ben Smith’s side have been ordered back to Broadfields due to using an additional substitute late in the last match when they were 5-0 up in the 88th minute.

Bay had seen two players taken to hospital that night, goalkeeper Tom Wray with a knee injury and Frankie Smith with a dislocated and fractured collarbone, injuries that could keep both out for months.

Amid the chaos, Smith admits they made a mistake, and called the decision to replay the match ludicrous.

But playing this match again means their scheduled league opener against Ashford United has had to be postponed – and the Bay manager is looking at the positives.

He said: “Sometimes you can get too emotional about these things. It is what it is and we just crack on.

“On the other hand, it's a bit ludicrous to be honest. It's not like we had a sporting advantage to win that game. Had they come back from 5-0 down on 88 minutes it would have made history.

“Part of the reasoning was around the integrity of the competition. But it just seems like the integrity of the competition counts at some points and at other points it kind of gets forgotten.

“Have we breached a rule? Yes, we have. That's on me. But there's another team of people that have allowed us to do that and the circumstances of that arising. We've had two players taken to hospital. It's a little bit chaotic.

“It's not just as straightforward as, ‘Oh, we've just miscounted and put another sub on’. There's a lot that contributed to that. We were straight away on it and reported it.

“We had nothing to hide. We weren’t trying to cheat. Now we’ve got people driving on