Manager Nick Davis is doing his best to play down Sittingbourne’s early-season meeting with Herne Bay.

Brickies face Bay at Woodstock tonight after opening their Bostik South campaign with a 2-1 win at Chipstead on Saturday.

Davis accepts there will be an edge to the derby, with Bourne’s former under-21 bosses John Embery and Jermaine Darlington taking a host of players with them after landing the top job at Winch’s Field.

Sittingbourne had to build a new squad after losing the likes of Jono Richardson, Josh Wisson and Jake Embery.

But they’ve pulled it off and have started the the season in good shape, with Davis treating Bay as just another game.

He said: “It’s going to have a bit of extra needle but it’s football at the end of the day and people move on.

“I don’t want to make it bigger than what it is.

“A lot of my players don’t really care too much about it because they’re new here.

“It’s another game of football. I don’t want to talk it up much. It is what it is.

“It doesn’t matter whether we play them early or later on in the season - I don’t really care. It wasn’t a game I looked out for.

“We know the players and I’ve heard lots of reports about them.

“Obviously they’re very young and quite lightweight, whereas we’re quite strong with some big lads in there, and we’ve got some pace about us as well but who knows what will happen?”