There are plenty of problems for Herne Bay’s management team to solve ahead of their home match this weekend.

Bay are back at the foot of Isthmian Premier, having followed up successive wins with two defeats in a row.

Goalkeeper Jordan Perrin is banned for their league fixture against Horsham on Saturday, as is on-loan Tonbridge midfielder Mason Saunders-Henry. Both were sent off in last weekend’s dramatic 3-2 loss at Canvey Island.

Striker Rory Smith (hamstring) came off on Tuesday in a 3-1 defeat to Potters Bar at Winch’s Field while attacker Tushaun Tyreece-Walters is expected to return to parent club Maidstone.

Bay lost 4-1 at Horsham in November in their last match prior to boss Kevin Watson’s appointment.

Watson said: “A couple of games ago, I had selection headaches because people were playing well. I’ve got the opposite now!

“We didn’t want to think too far ahead for Saturday but Rory’s picked up an injury.

“I’ve not got any solutions for Saturday yet, but we can start to plan ahead for that from this point onwards.”

There are starting shirts up for grabs for those recently on the fringes, though, including defender Briggs Ojemen and midfielder Emmanuel Martins.

“There’s opportunities for people,” Watson said.

“Manny has been very patient, Briggs has been extremely patient, so there could be some opportunities for people to get minutes.

“We may bring in a player or two, but there’s quite a long time between a Tuesday and a Saturday. A lot can happen.

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“Myself and Adam [Flanagan, assistant] - on a long drive home - will have a lot of time to discuss. If we talk to each other that is - I’m sure we will - but we’ll think about Thursday as well, in terms of what the best preparation is and what the players need.

“We don’t like losing. Of course, it’s frustrating for everybody, especially when it’s happened a couple of times like that.

“But myself and Adam won’t be demoralised by that. In many senses, it provides you with additional focus.

“How can we train better? How can we prepare better? How can we give players better information?

"That’s what we’ll work on.”

Midfielder Connor Dymond has signed for Bay from Cray Valley - Watson’s former club.

“He was good on Saturday and he was good again on Tuesday evening,” reflected Watson.

“It’s a shame he hasn’t played in a game yet where us, collectively, have played well.

“He’s got good leadership. He understands the ups and downs of football.

"It’ll bother him but he’ll work hard to change things for the team.”

A stunning free-kick by striker Marcel Barrington got Bay level against Potters Bar but, after the restart, the visitors netted twice more to take the points.

Watson had few complaints, saying: “I thought they deserved to win the game.

"They were the better team on the evening. I’ve got no excuses.

“It wasn’t good enough from individual players, us collectively as a team, and us as a management team.

"If we have a result and performance like that, then we’re accountable for it.

“On the evening, their management team was better than ours and their players were better than ours.

"We were below-par. I’ll accept and face that.

“But we can’t let that be a continuing theme and let that happen again.”

The defeat came after an agonising loss at Canvey Island.

Goals from Smith and fellow frontman Kymani Thomas saw the game evenly poised at 2-2 before the final stages when Saunders-Henry and Perrin were dismissed and Jamie Salmon snatched a dramatic winner.

“We probably felt slightly aggrieved on Saturday, with how the game went, not to get something out of it,” Watson said.

“While we created some opportunities on Tuesday and the scoreline could have been slightly different, I felt we showed a little bit more passion over the 90-plus minutes on Saturday than we did Tuesday.

“That’s disappointing because you expect and want that the frustrations of Saturday will give you some buoyancy on Tuesday and it didn’t.”