by Steve Tervet

Herne Bay are braced for a double dose of Kent derby action over the Easter weekend.

Their trip to Ramsgate on Good Friday is followed by an Easter Monday clash with local rivals Whitstable at Winch’s Field.

Bay could dent Ramsgate’s play-off hopes and leave the Oystermen adrift as Kent’s bottom club in Ryman League, Division 1 South.

However, Bay manager Simon Halsey (pictured) insisted those permutations provide him with no added motivation.

He said: "I don’t really care about their seasons. All I’m worried about is Herne Bay’s season.

"We have no fear of going to Ramsgate because we’re a good side and on our day, we’re as good as them.

"Whitstable are the same as us, up and down. Our supporters are happy as long as we finish above them but it’s not about being higher than them, it’s about us finishing as high as we possibly can in our first season. We haven’t done badly at all."

The postponement of Saturday’s home game against Corinthian Casuals has left Bay with 11 games to play in the last 30 days of the season.

He said: "It’s never-ending. We’ve already got Saturday-Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday (games in one week) but hopefully we’ll have enough points on the board not to have to worry about it.

"We’ve not been getting results but we’ve not had the chance to get a run of games going.

"We played well against Crawley Down (on Saturday, March 9) but that seems like an eternity ago."