Hollands & Blair follow up a 7-4 loss against Herne Bay with a determined performance against Gillingham’s youth team at Star Meadow

Hollands & Blair manager Luke Jessup was feeling a lot more optimistic on Tuesday night than he had been after a 7-4 weekend loss.

Southern Counties East Premier Division Blair lost 4-3 to Gillingham’s youth team at Star Meadow just days after conceding seven against Herne Bay.

Blair had been five goals down against Isthmian South East side Bay before salvaging some credibility from the game but a midweek clash against Gillingham’s full-time youngsters was more like it for Jessup.

“There were a lot more positives after the weekend,” said the manager.

“Dean Grant gave us more of a presence up-front, maybe on Saturday he was there in body but not mind!

“We have a lot of young kids we are trying to develop, with Preston Kedwell just 15, Devonte [West] who is only 17 or 18 and Connor Tilley (on a season-long loan from Chatham) just 19.

“From Saturday to Tuesday there was a stark difference, a massive difference, and it stems from asking them to be brave.

“There was no magic potion, nothing we’ve done differently in those four days, we just said ‘let’s go out and be brave, be aggressive, everything that Herne Bay were at the weekend’ and I think it showed.

“There were some great passages of play and it was good to go 1-0 up.

“There were mistakes we still want to iron out. At the weekend we went one down, two down, three, four, five down and although we got it back to 5-4 at one stage, it was a capitulation and when it’s not going quite your way then we just made it worse for ourselves.

“On Tuesday there were a couple of moments where we could have done the same but we have come back with some credit. Our keeper didn’t have the greatest game on Saturday but you can see he had learned some things.”

Blair were up against a