Herne Bay Harriers 4 Snowdown & Aylesham 3

Harriers returned after the Christmas break to a sodden pitch and tough opponents.

Indeed, the early exchanges were nip and tuck until fifteen minutes in, when, B. Tamplin spotted the keeper off his line and lobbed him from twenty five yards.

Ten minutes later another visitors attack broke down and the ball was fed to T. Inglis in midfield who read the run of J. Blackwell and with the offside trap beaten he had a clear run on goal and calmly chipped the ball over the advancing keeper.

Shortly before the interval B. Harding was rewarded for tormenting the left back when he raced on to a through ball and beat both defender and keeper to lift the ball into the unguarded net.

Almost from the re-start the ball broke for Tamplin on the right wing and as he attacked the space the Snowdown skipper was forced to close down the run and Tamplin squared his pass to the now unmarked Blackwell who struck the ball on the run curling his shot past the outstretched hand of the keeper to provide Harriers with an unexpected 4 - 0 lead at the break.

Harriers lost their second centre back to injury and Inglis was forced to fill in.

The disruption was compounded when a third player hobbled from the field but when the visitors failed to convert a penalty Harriers regained the initiative.

With twenty five minutes remaining the visitors finally breached the home defence but there was little evidence that this would disturb the home side as the clock ticked down.

A glimmer of hope shone for Snowdown when they scored a second with ten minutes left and tired legs looked revitalised for the push to the finish.

When a third was scored with seven minutes still to be played it looked as if Harriers would be undone.

Despite the onslaught, van Orsouw and Ashton-Konig fought hard to protect the back line and D. Watson at centre half was imperious and when all else failed B. Hibben commanded his penalty area with supreme confidence which just about saw Harriers home for three hard earned points.