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Herne Bay joint manager John Embery reflects on heavy defeats to Cray Wanderers and Ramsgate

Draw a line under it and move on. That’s John Embery’s advice for his players after beleaguered Herne Bay slipped to two heavy defeats in the space of four days this week.

Bay lost 6-0 away to runaway Bostik South East leaders Cray Wanderers on Saturday and then, beset by injuries, went down 5-1 at home to Ramsgate at Winch’s Field on Tuesday.

By the second of the games Bay were down to the bare bones defensively and joint boss Embery admits there’s little point dwelling on their misfortune.

Herne Bay joint manager John Embery Picture: Tony Flashman
Herne Bay joint manager John Embery Picture: Tony Flashman

Before the Cray game they had won four of their previous five matches.

Embery said: “It’s been a strange old couple of days.

“We actually played well on Saturday but before the game we went from having a full complement to just having two subs, and with 15 minutes to go we’d used both of those.

“By the end Jake Embery (hamstring) and Danny Leonard (knee) were both struggling and although they stayed on they were both really just passengers.

“They could hardly move which effectively meant we were down to nine men during that period and we just ran out of steam.”

Embery decided against risking any of his walking wounded for the Ramsgate game and because of that knew it was likely to be a challenging evening.

The defeat sent them back into the bottom two following Faversham’s 2-1 home win over Hythe the same evening.

Embery explained: “Ben Gorham, for instance, would have played but we took the decision out of his hands.

“He’s too big a player for us to risk his fitness and the same goes for the others who were injured.

“We virtually lost the back four but we didn’t want to gamble on playing them and risk losing them for longer.

“We knew it was going to be hard going out with a patched-up side on Tuesday and at the end of the day we made too many individual mistakes, but you’ve just got to take it on the chin and go again. Draw a line under it and move on.”

One plus for Embery was a scoring return for Harry Miller – back after a lengthy injury lay-off – and the Bay have brought forward Ronald Sobowale back to the club after a short but impressive spell earlier in the season.

Sobowale, who initially signed on loan from Walton Casuals, had been on trial with League 1 Barnsley and is due to return north at the end of the season.

Bay travel to fifth-placed Haywards Heath on Saturday and Embery expects Gorham (ankle), Leonard, Alex Mulrooney-Skinner (hip) and Danny Rumbol (knee) all to return. He may also have a new centre-half.

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