Herne Bay boss Ben Smith has challenged his players to kick on from their 3-0 midweek win at Ramsgate as they prepare to welcome County rivals Hythe Town to Winches Field this weekend and push on up the Bet Victor South East table from the 12th spot they currently occupy.
“Really pleased on Tuesday’s win at Ramsgate,” Smith told us, “it was a little bit of relief if I’m honest where we feel as though we have a good set of players in terms of ability and it’s hard to put your finger on things at times as what isn’t working. And clearly something wasn’t working as you can’t keep conceding the goals that we’ve been conceding and you can put that down to individual errors as much as you want really, but at some points you have to look at yourself and start asking if you’re setting up properly.”
“So, we tinkered with a few things going into Ramsgate and it paid dividends! I’m really pleased for the boys because they’ve been down – the dressing room hasn’t been a nice place; it’s a new group of players that we’re trying to gel together. They need moments where they grow as a group and going away to big spending Ramsgate and putting three past them with a clean sheet – that’s a great example of things that we can grow from!”
After he guided Canterbury City to the Semi Finals of last season’s Buildbase FA Vase, we asked Smith about differing standards and the step up from SCEFL to the League his new side play in.
“Noticed a big difference in class!” he admitted. “Going away to a club like Whitehawk who have got players who are dropping down a level to play for them or come down with them from higher leagues, it’s a different class of player. That’s no disrespect to the SCEFL, but it’s a big jump and sometimes it’s a test for us behind the scenes as well as the players to get things right.”
“We expected it – I’ve been at this level before as a player and a coach and so it’s not something that we didn’t expect, but it’s all about getting that settled side and your side right and that’s what we’ve got to do over the next month or so…”
“Pre-season went pretty well around the changes off the pitch and the first two games weren’t too bad. The expectancy when you sign players like Zak (Ansah from Hythe Town) and players like that, you get people saying you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that and you’re going to be here.”
“It must gel – we haven’t really struggled; we’re sitting alright at the minute – we’ve picked up points and we’re pleased with that. Hythe, us, Ramsgate we all signed a lot of players pre-season and it shows. It’s not just Football Manager when you sign players and they just click. I certainly expect all three clubs to rise up the table before the season ends.”
One of those players is a “new-old” face in goalkeeper Rob Budd. The former Thamesmead Town stopper signed for the Winches Field club a couple of seasons ago only to pick up a season ending injury within half an hour of his debut.
Smith told us, “It’s a true measure about the bloke that as soon as he walks back into the club, all the fans are behind him and really love him. He’s an infectious character and a nice bloke and he’s done well in the games he’s played. You can’t blame him for the 5-1 defeat at Whitehawk – as I said in the games he’s played, he’s done well!”
“Saturday sees us play Hythe at home – just our third home game – and it would be great to build on Tuesday’s win. It would be nice to get six points out of six from the two games – if you’d have said that to me at the start of the season, you’d have snapped their hands off!”
“That’s our path and that’s our challenge that we’ve got to meet – they’ve got some good players down there no matter where they are in the League. They’ve got very good players who have played at higher levels than this and we must make sure that we are completely at it on Saturday and completely focused. We’ve got the talent and it’s just a question of getting them to perform week in, week out.”
“We’ve no selection problems for the weekend – we’ve got a big squad and it’s about us making decisions on players now really as we want a happy camp with a healthy competition for places rather than an imbalance of too many players and not enough opportunity!”