Hollands & Blair 1-0 Hythe Town - The target has been the same as they were for me all season - play-offs - it hasn't broken the budget and we're not financially strapping ourselves, says Hollands & Blair boss Darren Blackburn

Hollands & Blair 1 – 0 Hythe Town
Location	Star Meadow, Darland Avenue, Gillingham, Kent ME7 3AN
Kickoff	31/01/2026 15:00

HOLLANDS & BLAIR  1-0  HYTHE TOWN
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 31 January 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Darland Avenue

HOLLANDS & BLAIR manager Darren Blackburn insists he is not breaking the budget as he targets grabbing the final play-off berth in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division after their deserved last-gasp victory left Hythe Town deep in relegation trouble.

The crowd of 141 inside Darland Avenue were subjected to an awful game of football as left-back Callum Flynn notched his third goal of the season, 36 seconds into stoppage time that extended the miss-firing Cannons’ winless run to 12 games.

There was to be no ‘new manager bounce’ for Andy Drury in his first game in charge as the 42-year-old former Folkestone Invicta manager failed to get a tune out of his players, who put in a very poor performance and failed to register a shot on target in 103 minutes of football in Gillingham.

Drury gave debuts to four of his players, with right-back Finlay Whitton, centre-half, Callum Frith, central midfielder Olumide Oluwatimilehin and striker Uko Oji failing to impress.

Hythe Town remain rooted to the foot of the table, having picked up 13 points (three wins, four draws and 17 defeats) and are now 10 points adrift of safety with 12 games remaining.

They are now on their third manager of the season (Ira Jackson – 21 games, six wins, two draws and 13 defeats in all competitions), (Darren Beale – nine games, 0 wins, four draws and five defeats).

Beale got the sack following Hythe Town’s 7-2 defeat at Snodland Town last Saturday and Drury’s first game as a manager at this level ended in defeat.

Today’s poor performance didn’t show anyone within the stadium that they have the desire or talent to get themselves out of relegation trouble, in what can be described as a disastrous last couple of seasons, having dropped out of the Isthmian League after finishing second-from-bottom of the South East Division last season, the club’s first ever relegation.

Hythe Town created only two goalscoring chances against a Hollands & Blair side that went into this game having suffered back-to-back defeats to Sutton Athletic and Erith & Belvedere.

“The game went exactly how I thought it would to be honest with you,” admitted Blackburn, who was part of Steven Watt’s management team that guided Hythe Town to the Isthmian League South East Division Play-Off Final in April 2023.

“They’ve got a new manager in, he’s got a lot of experience. They’ve got someone in alongside him (Steve Miller, assistant manager and Joe Clayson, coach), who can obviously get a few in. Whether or not they’re going to have time to.

“It’s Step Five football mate. If I’m brutely honest, you don’t need to be perfect, you just need to do some of the basics better than the other team.  Yes, there are some real quality teams in our League but basic Step Five football is try and play in the opponents’ half, don’t sort of overplay in your half at times, especially when you’re down the bottom.

“Yes, it was exactly how I thought it would be. A hard-fought win.  Hythe didn’t give up. Maybe if we had got an early goal perhaps their confidence might have dropped.  All the time it’s nil-nil, they will be trying to get a point. Let’s be honest, they haven’t won in a few, they’ll be trying to get a point and get the manager of the start blocks with a point, so I was very conscience of that.”

Blackburn cannot believe that his former club are on course of playing the likes of Bridon Ropes – in front of 26 people – in the First Division next season after Watt made Reachfields Stadium a tough place to go, just like the now retired Scott Porter did a few years back.

“They’ve got Jason Fregene in there, they’ve got Gil Carvalho in there, they’ve got Monty Saunders on the bench. You can’t look at their squad and say that squad deserves to be down where it was,” said Blackburn.

“I spent a fantastic year at Hythe when me and Steve Watt took them to the Play-Off Final at Step Four, with probably a lower budget (around £2,000 a week) then I imagine what they’re trying to invest now to put things right and it’s difficult because they’re all good players, all their players at Step Five, they can all play.  The youngsters, the older ones, the ones in between, they’re all a good bunch.

“It’s just on the day, it’s whoever takes their chances. If they had gone 1-0 up and managed to nick 1-0 in front, it would’ve been a tough day for us. We’ve lost the last two games, so I felt like we needed to get on a run again.

“I said, if we can win today and we can have a good February then who knows what can take us by the end of February?”

Drury’s tenth-tier bound side could have changed the narrative with only 132 seconds on the clock.

Left-winger, Dadigildo Carvalho played the ball out to high right-back Whitton, who fed fellow debutant Oji, who shrugged past Blair centre-half Charlie Weston before the ball was worked out to Carvalho, who drilled a right-footed angled drive, which Weston showed desire to close the gate at the far post and volley away towards safety, before nestling into the bottom far corner of the goal.

“Charlie’s been brilliant, him and Luke (Exall) the last two or three months, the whole back four, the whole back five. I can’t leave Dan Ellis out of that,” said Blackburn.

“I’m frustrated for them because if you look at our goals conceded record, it’s far worse than it should be and our goals scored is not enough (27 League goals scored, 41 conceded in 24 League games).

“But we’ve nicked another 1-0 win. I wouldn’t say we’ve nicked it, we’ve earned it. We’ve been disciplined, we’ve been organised. We’ve rode the moments that they had in the game, like you do. There’s always going to be 5-10 minutes here and there that you’ve got to keep it out.”

Hollands & Blair who dominated the corner-count by six to one went close following their first delivery, in from the right in the 12^th minute.

Flynn whipped the ball in with his left-foot and visiting goalkeeper Henry Newcombe flapped at the ball and allowed Weston to guide his diving header past the far post from inside the six-yard box at the back stick.

Hollands & Blair centre-half Luke Exall hooked the ball up field, right-winger Diekonifeoluwa Falade skipped past Hythe’s holding midfielder Folarin Awoleke who laid the ball off to Kane Rowland, who dragged his right-footed half-volley across the keeper and past the far post from 25-yards (13:32).

“It just didn’t quite fall for us did it first half, again, that’s been the story of our season really,” admitted Blackburn, speaking after his side’s sixth 1-0 win of the season (in all competitions).

“We work a lot on it in training. We work on our finishing, our transitions into finishing, attacking play, counter-attacking play. It’s not like we’re not working on the training ground.  But it will drop and ultimately at the end of the day, if we have to win games 1-0, the way I set my teams up, I get them to work hard from the front defensively, so I expect that.”

Hollands & Blair’s right-back – Simon Kabamba – man-of-the-match for keeping Carvalho in his pocket – threw the ball back to Exall (who loves hitting long diagonal balls over the top of Whitton’s head) and this time debutant striker Ibrahim Akanbi swept his right-footed half-volley, which was comfortably gathered by Newcombe.

Kabamba and Falade linked up well down the right, especially in the first half.

Blackburn handed debuts to Akanbi (Isthmian League Premier Division side Cray Valley) and left-winger Emmanuel Oluwasemo (Isthmian League South East Division side Erith Town).

“Really pleased with them, really pleased. I thought they both did exactly what I wanted them to do,” said Blackburn.

“Ibby stayed down the middle, occupied the centre-halves, was always in and around the right area when the ball went in there and he hasn’t played a lot either, so he’s come in on the back of a bit of an injury, so we’ll have to see how he goes, but brilliant.

“His attitude and looking at me in the dressing room, he’s listening in. He doesn’t have to, he’s played higher level and he could have come in and looked like he doesn’t want to be here or whatever.

“He was knocking on my door yesterday looking to come in. He was the one texting me yesterday morning to ask if we could have a chat.

“I’ve known Manny for years, he’s never played under me but always been a bit of a fan. He’s very similar to some of the wingers we’ve already got.

“People say to me ‘do we need more of that?’ but sometimes when it’s not quite working for one of them, we need those changes.”

Both sides created an opening in the space of 95 seconds.

Hollands & Blair’s holding midfielder Matthew Gething whipped in a cross from just outside the left corner of the box towards the back post where Falade leapt above left-back William Dempsey to loop his header into Newcombe’s gloves for a routine catch.

Hythe Town’s attacking midfielder Armani-Jordan Martin slipped a through ball into the left-channel for high left-back Dempsey, before Hollands & Blair doubled up on Martin, who emerged from close to the corner flag and ran along the by-line before drilling the ball into the base of the side netting from a tight angle.

Flynn threw the ball to Gething, who delivered a deep cross from within the left-channel towards the back post where Kabamba knocked the ball down before hooking his right-footed half-volley flashing past the near-post from 22-yards, as Hollands & Blair were the more likely team to score and win this poor stalemate.

Hythe Town often miss-placed passes either in front of full-back Whitton or behind ineffective right-winger Steadman Callender, with countless balls going out of play for Blair throw-ins during the first half.

Whitton drilled a long ball into the right-channel for Oji, who fed Callender, who cut into the middle but chose the wrong option and his short pass in behind failed to find a team-mate and was comfortably picked up by an untroubled Blair keeper Dan Ellis, who didn’t have to make a save.

Hollands & Blair were to be denied the lead just 23 seconds later when Falade played in Akanbi in behind and his right-footed stabbed shot was blocked by Newcombe, who rushed off his line and made a vital save (40:53).

“A good save by Henry to be fair the keeper does well, stays up and makes himself big,” said Blackburn.

“Ibby’s got that experience, he holds that defender off again, he does everything right, lifts it, the keeper does well to save it.

“I said sometimes you’ve got to credit the keeper, it’s a good save. I don’t put it down as a miss, it was a good save by the keeper.”

When asked to reflect on his half-time team-talk, Blackburn said: “Right, in midfield we were way too deep. We were playing too many little five-yard passes, ‘nothing passes,’ I call them. There’s no reason for them.  If I stop suddenly and press the pause button and say ‘what’s the point of that pass?’, there isn’t one!  You haven’t moved anyone, you haven’t switched play, you haven’t shuffled them at all.

“We’re not asking a question of any of their players, midfield or defensive line. We’ve got forward players making runs not being picked out. 

“I was a bit frustrated first half, so it wasn’t a bo*****ing. It was constructive criticism at half-time and I wanted the boys to look that little bit direct, get the wingers in the game, not long ball but ask a question. Play different balls into channels, use our assets, use our pace, use our strength that we’ve got up top because too often the ball was getting nicked by them in midfield and we haven’t even got the ball into our better players, our forward players, so I was feeling frustrated at half-time, but stay patient, that was my message, stay patient.”

Attacking midfielder Kane Rowland was dropping way too deep and didn’t look like adding to his seven-goal haul so far this season.

“That was the other message, Kane (Rowland) was way too deep at times. He was behind our holding mid (Gething) but what I couldn’t work out was they had two holding mids that didn’t move, so I told him to stay connected to Ibby, play between the eight (Oluwatimilehim) and the four (Awoleke) and he did more of that in the second half.  That’s why we got higher up the pitch and we were able to sustain some more attacks and the volume of the attacks, I think as well.”

Hollands & Blair created a couple of headed chances following set-pieces inside the opening nine minutes of the second half.

Flynn floated in a quality delivery with his left-foot towards a crowd of players and Gething rose to send his header over the crossbar (6:45).

Oluwatimilehin was penalised for handball and Reece Gillies’ resulting free-kick from inside the Blair half was delivered towards a high line and Exall came up from the back and planted his bullet header off target.

Hythe Town missed a glorious chance to grab the lead with nine minutes and 31 seconds on the clock, following a three-man set-piece.

Centre-half Jason Fregene floated his right-footed free-kick close to the centre-circle into the right-hand side of the penalty area and Callender put it on a plate towards the back post for Carvalho, who missed a sitter and placed his right-footed shot across Ellis and past the far post from six-yards out.

“Yes, it came across, it flashed across and he just dragged it wide hasn’t he.  He had a couple of close ones,” admitted Blackburn.

“Gil will be frustrated but I don’t think Gil had a bad game. I think he was good. He had a couple of chances. He got into places, he had some one-v-one scenarios but ultimately Simon (Kabamba) is a seven or eight out of 10 every week defender.  He never lets me down. He never lets the team down. He never makes too many mistakes. I can’t think of the mistakes really.

“I like him to get forward a bit more but I recognise with him he’s a very composed, accomplished defender and he focuses on that and I wouldn’t mind that because we’ve got forward players who can go and put the ball in the net.”

Blair’s second corner, taken by Flynn down the right was clipped into the box and Newcombe flicked the ball away with his right-hand.  The ball was rolled back by Oluwasemo to an unmarked Gillies, who recycled the ball back into the box towards the back post where Flynn saw his free header sail over Newcombe and drop the wrong side of the foot of the far post from a very tight angle on the by-line (14:33).

“It’s unfortunate that. It’s a great delivery from Gillies. He’s picked him out. He knows that Callum’s taken the corner so he’s probably unmarked because they don’t get tracked and he’s picked him out, brilliant ball at the back post, a great header, it’s just unfortunate for us that we’re not anticipating,” said Blackburn.

“That ball is only going to be headed back across the goal, it’s our sustained attack. We could’ve had two or three looking to run that in the far post. They should be walking that in the net and it’s not and that’s the frustrating thing for me sometimes, we tend to switch off a little bit offensively at times.”

As early as the 66^th minute, Sky Sports’ XG (Expected Goals) had dropped to 0%.

Referee Reece Cahalane had no option but to pull out his second yellow and then a red-card as Hythe Town finished the game with ten-men after left-back  Dempsey was sent off (32:18) after two bookable fouls on Kabamba and Falade.

Hythe Town goalkeeper Henry Newcombe walked to the very edge of his penalty area and dropped to his backside with a fake injury and he received treatment as the rest of the players went over to the away dug-out and listened to Drury’s instruction to have two banks of four with Callender offering nothing as the lone striker.

It’s about time that goalkeeper’s are sent off for feigning injuries so that their manager can dish out tactical instruction to the players who have gathered in front of the dug-out. 

“Two yellow’s isn’t it, so you can’t question either of them,” admitted Blackburn, while Dempsey has cost his team-mates a point because they were never going to win this must-win game.

Newcombe made a remarkable recovery and lined up a three-man wall for the resulting free-kick, taken by Akanbi, who whipped his right-footed free-kick from 35-yards, which was inches away from the top right-hand corner.

“I must admit, I’ve never seen Ibby take a free-kick but I know he’s been doing the Baller League on Sky Sports, so when he stepped up, Bobby Dunn said to me ‘get me on now Daz to take the free-kick,’ so any other time that’s why I made the sub then.

“Bobby’s got a great free-kick on him with his left-foot but credit to Ibby but I expect him, he’s experienced. I expect him to take responsibility there. If he’s confident in his own ability, I love to see that.  Lovely little knuckle ball and he’s missed by what? A few inches? If that goes in, phenomenal free-kick. I’ve never seen him take one, so I was just pleased it didn’t end up in the car park!”

Hollands & Blair deserved their winning goal, when it arrived with 45 minutes and 36 seconds on the clock, in the second phase of their fourth corner.

Bobby Dunn whipped in the ball from the right and Newcombe punched the ball away with his left-hand unchallenged. The former Ramsgate second-choice was the busier of the two goalkeeper’s and was forced to punch the ball away around five occasions during the second half.

Dunn recycled the ball back into the box, Weston got involved to and clipped the ball to Flynn, who swept his first time left-footed shot in off against the underside of the crossbar and well-positioned assistant referee Mark Takacs signalled that the ball did bounce over the goal-line.

“The lino’s made the shout on the one that hits the bar and gone in, credit to him,” said Blackburn.

“We thought going to 3-5-2 would benefit us going two up top and ultimately we did but our left-wing-back has gone and scored. We stepped him forward one, they went four, sort of two, three, I think. They tried to be quite positive, which I would probably do the same and it’s just dropped for us at the right time.

“Even that we should score. It should hit the back of the net. It shouldn’t hit the bar. I’m pleased it’s gone in and luckily the linesman is in a cracking position, looking right along the line, probably a yard off the line and he’s brave enough to make the call. It’s not brave. If the decisions’ right you just make the right decision.  That was nice to see from the officials today, credit to them.”

When asked whether he was feeling concerned about his side’s low scoring numbers in the League this season, the Blair boss replied: “No! if we were second from bottom or bottom of the League and we’ve scored 12 goals in 22 games, I’d be concerned. I’m not concerned because we create chances.

“We’ve got loads of attacking talent, a variety of attacking talent and we can score all different types of goals.  We’ve got lads that can come in and score headers.  The fact that it hasn’t dropped for us is really other teams should fear that because we do create chances. We do get into opponents’ box regularly even by set-pieces or through open play and we do create stuff.”

Hollands & Blair were without George Goodwin (ankle) and Mobolaji Dawodu (knee) but Goodwin is in contention to be added to the squad when Jimmy Anderson brings his third-placed Rusthall here next Saturday.

“They’re flying, third in the table. I think they’ve got games-in-hand. The manager’s been there a while now, been there a few years and he’s got consistency. I’ve always had good games against them over the years, always had close games so hopefully we can give them a good game and see where that takes us, that’s all we can do,” said Blackburn, who’s 12^th placed side are only seven points adrift of the play-off zone (Snodland Town).

Hythe Town (13 points from 24 games, a budget of over £2,000 a week) are fighting it out with Stansfeld (13 points from 22 games, a budget of £0 a week) for the wooden spoon.

Faversham Strike Force (22 points from 22 games) are looking over their shoulder, while Chislehurst Glebe – 4-1 winners at fourth-placed Bearsted today – should have enough in the tank to survive, with Frankie Sawyer’s side on 24 points from 26 games.

Corinthian (25 points from 24 games), Kennington (29 points from 22 games), Tunbridge Wells (30 points from 21 games) and Hollands & Blair (31 points – 10 wins, one draw and 13 defeats) from 24 games make up the bottom eight.

Hythe Town lacked quality, heart and desire to find a way back into the game, despite the referee playing 10 minutes and nine seconds of stoppage time and they travel to second-placed Larkfield & New Hythe next week and time is running out on their expensive survival bid.

In the summer, following relegation from the Isthmian League, the club should have appointed a manager who knows everything about the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division – the hardest and competitive Step Five division in the country.

The Cannons started with a young side and are now panic buying (well, bringing players in on free transfers, paying them too much for this level of football) in an attempt to get themselves out of his mess that they find themselves in.

“Today was massive for us, in terms of we’re in that sort of mid-point where if we lost, we’ve lost the last two, if we lose the next two with a couple of tough games coming up, you could be, if other teams pick up results, it doesn’t do a lot for confidence,” said Blackburn.

“Fair play to the club, we’ve not increased the budget massively. People will be looking at some of the signings we’ve got. The budget hasn’t gone up a lot, more from what it was. They’ve put it up a bit this season from last season but they realise that the League is becoming incredibly competitive both financially on and off the pitch, so we’re doing what we can.

“Our books will be balanced by the end of the season.  I’ve spoken to our treasurer yesterday at length about it and we’re in a good place, so everything’s sort of going ok at the moment.

“My target has been the same as they were for me all season – play-offs.  That’s why I’ve brought Ibby and Manny in. It hasn’t broken the budget. We’re not financially strapping ourselves. We’re moving a bit of money around. I might have to be clever and creative in a few weeks’ time but I’ll do that and worry about that then. I’m not going to worry about it now.

“Now I want to worry about picking my best 16 that I can get available. I’m doing my job as a manager to make sure that I’m in the market, trying to bring in the best players that we can afford, with the right character and see where that takes us.

“Money doesn’t guarantee you anything. You could pay £30 to a player or £300 to a player. If you’re not getting value for money at either end of the market you’ve got to make changes and Dukes will be good t that and Steve Miller is good with players. He knows a lot of players and he’s got a lot of contacts.

“But I still care about the club (Hythe Town) because of the time I had there. I probably had one of my most, if not my favourite season in football (reaching the Isthmian League South East Division Play-Off Final, losing 1-0 at Whitehawk).

“We went on a run of six wins (at the end of that League season) that’s what they’ve got to believe that’s what they’ve got to do.  That’s why I think it was massive for us today to get that three points because we didn’t want to be their first start of the rung of the ladder so to speak. We were almost victim of that at 0-0 for a long part of the game.

“You’ve got to get things right on the pitch. You can’t just rely on, gone are the days we lost a Ricky Freeman and we brought in a Rob Denness or where we lost a Billy Johnson and we brought in a Ricky Cavanagh. Gone are those days.  You can’t rely on mates.

“You’ve got to make the most of your money so if somebody’s not giving you bang for your buck, you’ve got to be a strong and resilient manager and you’ve got to make tough decisions.

“You’ve got to deal with the moments that presents themselves and you’ve got to be positive and you’ve got to have a clear vision of where you want the team to be and what you want them to do.

“I mean, look at the facilities we’ve got here. I know we’re grateful to Soccer Elite for investing the money here and us (Hollands & Blair) being partners with them. Credit to them and the relationship we’ve got with them and hopefully we and continue to build with them.”

Or clubs in this division can follow the Fisher model.  Putting an exciting, competitive team on the pitch on a budget of £0 a week. A shop window for raw talent and a club ethos to be proud off.

Fisher have beaten Windsor & Eton on penalties to reach the last 16 of The FA Vase and impressed during their London Senior Cup success over Isthmian League Premier Division side Wingate & Finchley and sit in eleventh-place in the table tonight on 31 points from 20 games.

Andy Drury's Managerial Record  - all four club's located on the Kent coast:
Whitstable Town - P7 - W2 - D1 - L4
Margate - P27 - W11 - D6 - L11
Folkestone Invicta - P66 - W24 - D14 - L28
Hythe Town - P1 - W0 - D0 - L1

Overall League & Cup Record:  P101 - W37 - D21 - L44

Hollands & Blair: Daniel Ellis, Simon Kabamba (Muhammed Cham 89), Callum Flynn, Matthew Gething, Charlie Weston, Luke Exall, Emmanuel Oluwasemo, Reece Gillies, Ibrahim Akanbi (Adebayo Batula 90), Kane Rowland (Bobby Dunn 80), Diekonifeoluwa Falade.
Subs: Ian Draycott, Ollie Gray

Goal: Callum Flynn 90

Booked: Emmanuel Oluwasemo 86, Diekonifeoluwa Falade 90

Hythe Town: Henry Newcombe, Finlay Whitton, William Dempsey, Folarin Awoleke, Jason Fregene, Callum Frith, Dadigildo Carvalho, Olumide Oluwatimilehin (Callum Morris 68), Uko Oji (Monty Saunders 66), Armani-Jordan Martin (Jerzy Krzyszka 80), Steadman Callender.
Subs: Blu Hustwaite, Daniel Kennedy

Booked: William Dempsey 26

Sent Off: William Dempsey 78

Attendance: 141
Referee: Mr Reece Cahalane
Assistants: Mr Mark Takacs & Mr Harry Smedley