Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Gorham sinks high-flyers
Bostik South
Herne Bay fought back from a goal down to win their Bostik South match at home to highflying Cray Wanderers on Saturday.
Cray’s first-half penalty was cancelled out by strikes from Jake Embery and Ben Gorham.
The visitors, lying second, got off to a good start when Junior Dadson was fouled by Richard Ismail in the Bay penalty area.
Charlie Macdonald fired in the penalty to give Cray a 1-0 lead.
Bay came back with good efforts for Junior Aikhionbare and Nassim Dukali but they couldn’t find their way past Cray goalkeeper Nick Blue.
Bradley Schafer also saw his curling shot from 25 yards go just wide shortly before half-time.
It was Bay who started the second half the better and had their hard work rewarded when Jake Embery turned the ball home from a corner in the 61st minute.
The hosts were dominating and Tom Carlton had two efforts on target but couldn’t find his way through.
Then, with 10 minutes to go, defender Gorham fired the ball into the net to give Bay the points.
The victory puts Herne Bay 15th in the table. They travel to Molesey on Saturday.
Faversham Town conceded a last-minute penalty to lose at promotion-chasing Corinthian-casuals.
Carl Rook was punished for a challenge in the box on Coskun Ekim and Jordan Clarke scored the spot kick to give the home side a 1-0 win.
Before the game, Faversham lost both centre-backs, Oliver Lee and Matthew Bourne, at short notice, which meant they could only name one outfield player on the bench.
Town were immediately put under early pressure when a misplaced defensive pass fell for Hamilton Antonio who struck his shot across the face of Simon Overland’s goal.
The visitors had their own chances when Rook found space in the Casuals box and connected with Liam King’s free-kick to force a good save from Danny Bracken.
Just before half-time Overland was forced into making a save when Gabriel Odunaike received the ball in the box but the goalkeeper was out quickly to smother the ball.
Casuals had an early chance on the counter attack in the second half but Jordan Clarke’s header went straight into Overland’s arms.
Chris Barnard and Dan Carrington both made excellent blocks to halt attacks as the home side were putting Faversham under pressure.
As the game entered stoppage time, Town had the chance to steal the points after catching Casuals on the break. Ashley Miller played it to Harry Stannard but the goalkeeper read the danger and snuffed out the chance.
Then, in stoppage time, Rook’s outstretched leg brought down Ekim and Clarke sent Overland the wrong way to grab a win for Casuals with the last kick of the match.
The defeat sees Faversham 16th in the table. They host Chipstead on Saturday.