A vociferous crowd at Maidstone will hold no fears for Herne Bay manager Simon Halsey when his side visit the Gallagher Stadium on Saturday.

Sitting second in Ryman League, Division 1 South – five points and six places above Bay – the Stones are averaging gates of more than 1,600 this season.

A vocal home crowd watched them sensationally knock Salisbury City out of the FA Trophy last weekend but Halsey insists his players will not be over-awed by the derby day atmosphere.

"We’ve got nothing to fear and nothing to worry about," said Halsey (pictured).

"We’ll go there and play our football and hopefully at ten to five, we’ll have got something out of the game. We had a couple of games last year in front of big crowds but we know Maidstone are a good side.

"It’s a massive test. They had a great result on Saturday, Salisbury are five points clear in Conference South so that shows what sort of team we’re coming up against.

"We’ll show them the utmost respect but we’re good on our day and we’re going in the right direction."