Herne Bay boss Sam Denly says his ill-disciplined players have let him and the club down as their flurry of red cards threatens to overshadow their fine start to the season.

When Kane Phillip received a straight red late in Tuesday’s 3-2 FA Cup second qualifying round replay defeat at Hastings, it was Bay’s sixth dismissal in five games, seventh in a month and reduced Bay to nine players for the second time this season.

Phillip followed Joe Nelder back to the Pilot Field changing rooms just three days after Sam Hasler saw red in the 1-1 draw in the initial tie at Winch’s Field, while Danny Walder, Harry Brown, Liam Quinn and Danny Williams have all received their marching orders in the previous four weeks.

Denly admitted: “I am frustrated and disappointed. It was not a good night for the club.
“The result, the performance and the red cards have all contributed to me feeling fed up.

“They have let me down. It is reflecting badly on the club and on me as a manager. From the outside, people will think the players have been given instructions but that’s not the case.

“We want players to be committed and competitive but we don’t want to see two-footed challenges and elbows flying, we want to be known for playing football and need players on the park to be able to do that.”

He added: “It’s something we have got to address. We have had some soft decisions but we have also had some poor red cards.

“We have instructed the players that the best way to avoid this happening is not to give the referees a decision to make. We do not want a reputation.

“We addressed it before the game on Tuesday but, for whatever reason, it still happened again and it has cost us. We are not going to just accept it, if things don’t change then we will make changes, it’s that simple.

“It is costing the club money in fines and ultimately it’s going to cost the players money because they are the ones responsible.”

Brown serves the final game of a three-match ban when Bay head to Witham in the FA Trophy preliminary round on Saturday (3pm) while Walder begins one of his own.

Denly said: “Not only do we lose players during games, which makes things harder but the spin-off is that we then lose them for two or three games further down the line.
“At this rate we are going to have four or five coming in at the same time.”