Herne Bay

Football in Herne Bay had to be started twice. The first club, formed in 1886, folded in 1913. It came back in the 1930s under the name Herne Bay Invicta and dropped the "Invicta" in 1935.

In 1953 the club paid £5,000 for Winch's Field, now also called The Crest Stadium. The first match there was a 2-2 draw with Tunbridge Wells Reserves, watched by more than 1,000 people. The ground holds 3,000, with 200 seats and cover for 1,500.

The decades that followed brought steady progress through the Kent and Athenian leagues. The 1990s brought a run of Kent League Premier Division titles, and in 1996–97 the club won that league's Premier Division Cup, Division One Cup and the Kent Senior Trophy in one season.

The best-known season came in 2011–12. Herne Bay won the Kent League title and reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase. They returned to the competition seven years later and got to Wembley, where they lost the 2018–19 final to Chertsey Town.

Around that period the club also acted as a stepping stone. Sam McCallum played there in 2017–18 before moving to Coventry City, then Norwich City and Sheffield United. Zak Ansah scored 49 goals in 78 appearances between 2019 and 2022.

Under manager Ben Smith, Herne Bay won the Isthmian League South East Division play-offs in 2021–22 and went up to the Premier Division. They dropped back to the South East Division in 2023, one season after the promotion. Steve Lovell took charge for 2023–24.

The club now runs as a Community Interest Company. That is a long way from a side that had to be rebuilt after 1913 and played its first seasons back on a former tip.