Herne Bay suffered a 3-0 defeat away to Broadbridge Heath after a weekend loss to East Grinstead –Steve Lovell’s side face Burgess Hill Town this Saturday in Isthmian South East

Herne Bay picked up more injuries as they slipped to a fourth straight defeat on Tuesday night but the manager’s not making excuses.

Experienced boss Steve Lovell was brutally honest in his assessment of their midweek Isthmian South East performance at Broadbridge Heath - which ended in a 3-0 defeat - and knows they need to work hard and stick together to turn things around.

Lovell said: “We were down to bare bones anyway and then you get three injuries, two in the first 20-odd minutes and it doesn’t help, but it still doesn’t take away the fact that you lose the game 3-0.

“There’s other games where we’ve lost and I’ve said we didn’t deserve it. But on Tuesday night, I’ve got to admit that we were hopeless. We were rubbish - even before the injuries.

“We couldn’t pass it five yards, the pitch was awful, it’s bobbly, these grass pitches in the winter are not the best at this level but you’ve got to deal with it.

“We were well beaten because of the way that we played, not anything that they did. Obviously, it helps if you keep everybody on the pitch and don’t have to bring youngsters on, really young players. It might have been different and in the second half, we started much better.

“I let a few of them know some home truths at half-time and, to be fair, they came out second half and started well. We were on top and then they got their second goal straight from our corner.

“They break up the other end and score. That’s not right. It’s just one of them games that you forget about and move on.”

Lovell’s side are away to play-off chasing Burgess Hill this Saturday and then travel to Deal Town on Boxing Day.

He said: “We’re playing two good sides but we’ve played well against the better sides this year.

“We’ve got a couple