Liam Friend is weighing up his options as he considers strengthening Herne Bay’s threadbare squad.

Bay were without the suspended Joe Alatise for their 4-1 Isthmian South East defeat against frontrunners Three Bridges on Saturday while fellow defender Louie Procopi, red-carded in a 2-0 victory at VCD last midweek, will start a three-game ban.

While player-manager Friend concedes his resources are down to the bare bones, he’s reluctant to simply bring in more bodies.

“The squad is thin,” admitted Friend. “We were one or two short, anyway, and we have got one or two injuries and two suspensions thrown into that.

“All of a sudden, you’re six down and there’s not a great deal of options.

“At the same time - other than Rogo (James Rogers), who came in on Saturday - pretty much everyone has started in our last five games.

“Maybe, that caught up with them a little bit but I’m not thinking I’m the only manager with injuries and things like that.

"It’s important to get the right people in.

“There might be some short-term pain with it but it’s about signing the right players and the right characters for the right reasons, rather than signing players just for the sake of it.”

Bay were 3-0 down inside 15 minutes to Three Bridges and, although midfielder Harvey Brand got one back before half-time, that was a mere consolation at Winch’s Field.

“I’m really disappointed with our first 20-minute performance,” reflected Friend, who brought on under-23s forward Max Woodfine for a late substitute appearance.

“We were a bit disappointed with the lack of execution of our game-plan. The goals were just things they were good at.

“The Three Bridges winger (Reece Hallard), if you get too close to him, he will roll you and he has a good shot on him.

“To be fair, Three Bridges were very clinical. They were 3-0 up after three shots and their third was a worldie.

“The rest of the game, we may have shaded it. But if we were in Three Bridges’ shoes, we would say ‘Congratulations - we’ll take the points’.

“It came out of the blue a little bit. Hopefully, we will be able to move on from it.

“Three Bridges also turned up with 16 very good players and have got a team that have been together for a long time.

“We were sort of down to the bare bones.

"I’ve been reluctant to complain about injuries but maybe, with the suspensions we’ve got, there was a bit of a tipping point. They had some very experienced players coming off the bench on Saturday.

“We didn’t think we were 4-1 away from Three Bridges but I’m sure Three Bridges will be pleased with their display.”

Bay will continue a tough run of matches against third-placed AFC Croydon Athletic, led by Danny Kedwell, who started his career at Herne Bay, this Saturday. Croydon have also re-signed forward Brandon Pierrick from National League South Tonbridge this week.

Friend said: “If we have any ambitions of being at the top-end of the league, as I’ve said to the players, we need to be beating everyone, rather than just the bottom-half teams.

“We beat Merstham (2-1) and we played really well.

“We deserved to beat them. I really enjoyed the fact we were down to 10 men and we still managed to beat them.

“Croydon will be another good team. I know a few of their players and have played with some of them.

“Kadell Daniel will definitely be a bit of a dangerman. They have been together since midway through last season.

“That’s something they’re slightly ahead of us with. Hopefully, our team will look a little bit different come Saturday.

“That will probably become a bit clearer closer to the time.”

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