Enthusiasm won the day over experience in Herne Bay’s decision to name John Embery and Jermaine Darlington as the club’s new management team.

The pair have been in charge of Sittingbourne’s successful under-21s and under-18s for the past two years and impressed Bay’s committee who voted five-to-one in favour of appointing them.

Bay interviewed nine candidates, before making a final decision on Tuesday night on a successor to Sam Denly who stepped down at the end of the season after four years in charge at Winch’s Field.

Secretary John Bathurst said: “John and Jermaine were the first ones we saw at the weekend and impressed us with a superb presentation and their enthusiasm for the job.

“They set the benchmark for the rest and after looking at all the pros and cons, we decided on enthusiam over experience.”

He added: “We set four criteria – how to motivate and build a new team on a restricted budget, knowledge of football at youth and senior level, commitment to the growth of our youth programme and our existing partnerships with Herne Bay Harriers and their aims and obectives for the future.

“I think they were both surprised by how high the budget was and plan to build the spine of the team with it and use their youth contacts.

“While they start with a brand new team and build up from the bottom, we do want to stay in Division 1 South and John and Jermaine are adamant and confident they will do that.”

Embery said “We are pleased and chuffed to bits to get the job.

“The meeting was only due to last 20 minutes but we finished up talking for more than an hour."

“Jermaine and I have the same understanding about how we work and play football. It’s down to hard work, effort and desire and a belief to succeed."

They plan to contact all the existing Bay players to confirm their plans, with the suggestion that Denly leaving, will mean the break-up of this season’s squad.

Top scorer Mark Lovell completed a clean sweep of the Bay player-of-the-year awards – supporters, players and manager.