Herne Bay boss Ben Smith facing dilemma with squad changes
06:00, 26 September 2019
Herne Bay boss Ben Smith admits he finds himself with a dilemma when it comes to tinkering with his squad.
Having seen his side lose 2-0 to Hythe on Saturday, Smith is contemplating further additions beyond this weekend’s Velocity Trophy clash with Ashford United.
“I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Smith.
“If you bring in loads of new players you have to give it time to settle but if you stick with what you’re doing you’ll probably see similar results and inconsistencies.
“There has been that little glimmer that there is a good side in there, that’s for us to work out, but we’ve definitely got a few changes to make.
“Obviously we’ve got a league cup game at the weekend and some players that you could sign would be cup tied.”
Former Gillingham midfielder Bradley Stevenson is in line to make his debut for the club on Saturday following his arrival at Winch’s Field last week.
Smith added: “Bradley has trained with us in three sessions now so he’ll come into the fold.
“It’s a hard one really because after last Tuesday’s win over Ramsgate (3-0) I couldn’t change anything so he’s chomping at the bit really to get going and try get his career back on track.
“He’s obviously got excellent pedigree, he’s played in League 1 so he’s got good experience.
“He’s got that arrogance on the ball and that spark that we were missing on Saturday.”
It proved another disappointing weekend for Herne Bay as they failed to impress against the Steve Watt-led Hythe.
“We can’t get a run of consistency together, it was just a flat performance,” explained Smith.
“When it got to around 50 minutes I’m thinking it’s going to be a poor draw and then we shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit.
“I think it was flat all around, we didn’t have to spark to get us going.
“We were 1-0 down and then had a stonewall penalty, I had kind of forgotten about that at 1-0 because I don’t think we deserved anything from the game, however it was so obvious, to not get it was disappointing.
“I don’t think I can turn around and say the lads didn’t work hard, that spark when we’re on the ball just wasn’t there.
“Out of the two games against Ramsgate and Hythe we’ve taken 50% of the points, we would have probably wanted more than that but it’s not a bad return from those games.”
