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A Herne Bay volunteer helped inspire them to victory in their key bottom-of-the-table clash on Saturday over Bowers & Pitsea.
Popular kit manager Aaron Smith spoke to Bay’s squad before a goal from a deflected free-kick by new arrival Yannis Drais, which sandwiched strikes by forwards Rory Smith and Marcel Barrington, saw them to a 3-1 success at Winch's Field, boosting their chances of Isthmian Premier survival.
“Aaron, who does the kit and works hard, those sorts of people at these clubs are so important,” said manager Kevin Watson.
“We asked Aaron to say a few words before the game. It’s really important that the players understand there’s lots of people at the club who work effortlessly.
“There’s torrential rain outside and he’s putting the goal nets up [after the game]. So I think that’s really important to acknowledge.”
It was a first league victory under Watson for Bay and their first since mid-October. Against Bowers, they conceded from a first-half penalty and had a second spot-kick given against them at the death, only for keeper Jordan Perrin to deny midfielder Billy Crook his second.
Bay do remain bottom of the league, however, with second-bottom Brightlingsea drawing 3-3 at Margate. James Collins’ Bowers team sit third-bottom.
Watson reflected: “I’m really pleased with the result because I think the club deserves it, I think the players deserve it, I think the chairman [Stuart Fitchie] deserves it, the fans deserve it and it’s felt like a long time coming.
“It has been [coming] for the club and since we have been in here. When we look at the performance today, there’s aspects, in other games we haven’t won, where we’ve played better and we mustn’t lose sight of that.
“We have got to continue to improve as individuals and a collective unit. But we have won the game, we’ll take that and for that reason, the week is probably easier.
“It’s easier to get up for work, it’s easier to eat healthily, it’s easier to go to the gym and easier to enjoy time with your family.
"We have got to embrace that and not take winning for granted.”
When asked if being 2-0 up inside five minutes had set the platform for their victory, Bay’s boss replied: “It did.
“But ironically, there was a spell in the game - probably from the 10th minute onward until maybe the end of the half - where we lost control of the game!
“Right at this moment in time, I need to watch the video back and try to develop an understanding of why that was. The game could have changed and they, obviously, got back into the game with a penalty.
“But we started the second half quite well and we got the third goal and then, with a minute or so to go, they got a second penalty.
“They’ve got two penalties today - and scored from one of them - but we have scored two and another from a free-kick.”
Wideman Che Krabbendam has left while on-loan Maidstone attacker Tushaun Tyreece-Walters is set for a spell out after picking up an injury in their 3-0 loss at Cray Wanderers on January 2.
