After hitting a bad patch, manager Sam Denly says he doesn’t want Herne Bay’s Ryman League Division 1 South season to end ‘with a whimper.’

Saturday’s 5-0 home defeat by play-off bound Greenwich Borough was their third straight since their nine-game unbeaten streak which dragged them away from the wrong end of the table.

Bay were 3-0 down inside 15 minutes and shipped two more late-on and Denly admitted: “It’s been a difficult last few weeks but we have played some difficult teams.”

Denly admitted motivation ‘is a factor’ at this stage of the season with Bay sat 17th and unable to go down or to make the play-offs.

He said: “It’s been a long and difficult season, it’s been hard with the financial constraints the club is under and with four games to go I think you could forgive people for looking ahead to the summer.

“We got ourselves on a fantastic run and got ourselves out of danger but we don’t want to go out on a whimper, we want to finish as high as we can.”

They face a tough task to half their slump, with title-chasing Dorking Wanderers heading to Winch’s Field on Saturday (3pm) - though Bay did stun the Surrey side 4-3 in the away fixture in January.

Denly admitted: “We know it’s going to be very difficult. It will be a completely different game to that one. They are chasing automatic promotion and it’s certainly not going to be easy but we want to get back to winning ways, particularly at home.”

Denly added: “If we can help someone out by upsetting the odds elsewhere then great. We went down to Hastings on the last day of last season, they needed to win to get in the play-offs and we beat them 2-1 which helped Faversham get in.

“We want to play a part in the end of the season, even if we’re not in it ourselves.”

Denly hopes Liam Quinn and Danny Williams will return.