Herne Bay’s season-opening Isthmian South East game at Littlehampton Town pushed back to Sunday, August 11, as pre-season preparations continue

The wait for Herne Bay’s big kick-off is now set to continue for one more day.

Bay begin their Isthmian South East term at Littlehampton.

But that game has been rearranged for Sunday, August 11, due to the Sussex side’s groundshare agreement meaning The Sportsfield is unavailable the day before.

Herne Bay boss Steve Lovell said: “I would rather get Littlehampton out of the way now, rather than in the winter.

“It’s going to be on that Sunday - but it’s not too much of a problem. It’s pretty much the same thing, it’s only one day later.

“That will give me a chance to watch a game on that Saturday, as well, and look at another of our opposition for the coming weeks.

“Everything is going well. I’m pleased with the boys.

“I enjoy it, they enjoy it, and let’s see what happens.”

Goals from forward Kane Rowland and youngster Monty Saunders, coming after some nice build-up play, led Bay to a 2-1 home win against Southern Counties East Premier Division side Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday.

“The first goal was a good goal,” Lovell said. “There was a good ball by Sam Wright and then Kane is on the end of it.

“For the second goal, there’s some good work by Artem (Kuchkov), who played a great ball through to Monty, who finished it well.

"These players are mostly new to us this year.

“They’re young boys, plenty of energy, plenty of willingness to work hard and do the things that we want them to do, so it’s been good.”

The latest Bay game allowed them to experiment with a few things, Jack Parter - now playing at right-back - skipper in Liam Friend’s absence while left-sided utility man Tom Hanfrey helped fill the void the player-coach left at centre-back.

Lovell said: “Friendy wasn’t here so it gave Tom a chance to play at left-sided