Herne Bay joint-boss John Embery says his side need to stop giving away cheap penalties in games.

They have conceded nine in just 12 games this season and have proved costly for the side.

It has contributed to their poor league form that sees them sit second from bottom in the Bostik South East.

Embery said: “It is giving everyone a get out of jail free card at times. Only one of those nine penalties was saved so we have been giving away goals too cheaply. It is a tough one to swallow at times.

“It was a stonewall penalty on Saturday against Cray Wanderers and we had no complaints about it. As soon as I saw the challenge I looked away because I knew it was a penalty.”

Bay have a tough test in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy at home to Witham Town as they will have a makeshift defence.

They lost two central defenders, Matt Fry and Ben Gorham, through injury and then Danny Rumbol was sent off in their 2-1 defeat to Cray Wanderers on Saturday.

Embery said: “Matt Fry is out for this game on Saturday and Ben Gorham is out for two weeks.

“We are having one catastrophe after another at the moment. Losing three centre-backs in a game is almost unheard of.

“We will have to use midfielders at the back, which is not an ideal situation.

“It now makes things so much harder on Saturday. We already have a few injuries so we will have to pull people out of position just to be able to get a team out.

“We don’t know much about Witham Town but we will go out and attack. We still have a lot of options going forward and people are fit – it’s just at the back where there might be a problem.”

Despite losing to league leaders Cray Wanderers in the Bostik South East, Embery sees plenty of positives to take from the game.

He added: “We deserved something out of the game. We gave away the penalty and it made things a lot harder for us and then we went down to 10 men as well.

“We should have been in front but their goalkeeper made some good saves. The team is full of confidence as we played well.”