Manager Steve Lovell has vowed Herne Bay won’t sit back for a potentially thrilling match at promotion rivals Three Bridges.

Both teams sit on the same number of points as they aim to reach Isthmian Premier through the play-offs - albeit sixth-placed Three Bridges are ahead with a slightly better goal difference prior to Saturday’s meeting at Jubilee Walk.

Only Isthmian South East leaders Ramsgate have scored more league goals this term than the Bridges. But Bay haven’t struggled to find the target themselves, with last November’s meeting between the sides at Winch’s Field finishing 3-3.

“We’ll approach it in the same way and go for a win,” said Lovell.

“I don’t believe in sitting back and getting a draw. We’ll take the game to them and see how it goes. We have got to score goals and try to win games now.

“There’s no point hanging on for one point.

“We’ll go all out, try to get a result and, hopefully, that’ll spur us on.”

Three Bridges edged a nine-goal game at second-placed Cray Valley last weekend to consign Steve McKimm’s side to a first league defeat of the season, while Bay will be without the experienced duo of player-coach Liam Friend and forward Kane Rowland after they were both sent off in Saturday’s 2-1 derby defeat to Hythe.

Lovell added: “They had a really good result at Cray on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a tough game there - it always is - but we have enough players in our squad now. It’s a chance for some of them to come in and show us what they can do.

“I’ll have to change the formation but we’ll work on it in training this week and go there and, hopefully, get a result.

“The next game on Saturday is important - but so are our home games.

“If we can win all our home games, we will have a good chance of being in there (the play-offs).”

Rowland gave Lovell’s team a dream start against Hythe. But the Cannons turned the game around before half-time, with Rowland and centre-back Friend, 35, dismissed after the restart for second cautions.

“We played really well,” reflected the Bay boss.

“I think we played the best we have for a while. We created a lot of chances and it was a good game.

“We took the lead and could have had a couple of other [goals] - but circumstances in the game went against us and we ended up losing the game.

“The two sending-offs were a bit strange but I don’t want to talk about them.

“The thing is now that we’ll miss a couple of players for a game and it’s going to be tough for us.

“But I said to them (the players) afterwards that I’m so proud of them because they kept going, kept playing, kept doing the right things, and their keeper had to make some great saves at the end to deny us at least a point. But we know what sort of team Hythe are.

“They’re quite a strong team defensively and they get a lot of chances from set-plays, so it was disappointing that we conceded two goals from set-plays. They were scrappy goals.

“But for the majority of the game, with the long throws, free-kicks and corners that they had, we defended the majority of them very well.”

Former Margate and Ashford forward Vance Bola made his Bay bow from the start against Hythe.

“He did very well,” noted Lovell.

“He will bring us a bit of energy and he has a very good footballing brain.

“I thought he played very well on Saturday and was unlucky on two occasions not to score. It’s great to bring him in. He’ll help us in the last 10 games of the season.

“Hopefully, we can kick on and get a few more wins under our belt to keep us in touch in the promotion race.”

Archie Burnett (Achilles) could return from injury for Herne Bay’s trip to Three Bridges, although fellow midfielder Bola Dawodu is likely to remain with dual-registered club Lordswood.

Lovell explained: “If Bola isn’t going to be in our starting XI, then he might as well stay with Lordswood and have games because we might need him towards the end of the season.

“The more games he has, the sharper he’s going to be, ready for if we need him for the run-in.”