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We can play much better, demands Beckenham's Taylor

Beckenham Town travelled to unbeaten high flying Whitstable Town on Saturday and simply were not at the races.

Traditionally slow starting Beckenham found themselves immediately under pressure from the kick off.

Some fine goalkeeping from Gary Hopper prevented the home side from going 4 up in the
first 15 minutes.

Beckenham had just started to find their rhythm, when, after 23 minutes Whitstable's Lee Jones found himself in space within the 6-yard-box and stroked the ball into the net.

The home-side looked like scoring again before the break and once again Hopper came to the rescue.

For the last 15 minutes of the half it started to look as if Beckenham were getting back into the game but simply just could not manage to find the last ball to put the forwards through.

The travelling fans looked forward to the second half in hope that  there was going to be a change in the teams fortunes.

After 4 minutes of the re-start Whitstable struck again with a powerful free kick by skipper Marc Seager that found the top corner.

Beckenham Town defender Sinclair had to leave the field through injury and was replaced by debutante Adam Hynes. Mario Celaire was moved back into the defence and at last Becks looked confident at the back.

The quick short passing game that is synonymous with Beckenham was virtually non existent
today and the visitors constantly tried to probe the Whitstable's defence with long balls to no avail.

Flaherty managed to find space down the right flank and provided some good telling crosses, it almost seemed like a Beckenham revival in the last 10 minutes and Hynes was put through by Vella only to find his shot well saved by Gary Arterton.

A penalty appeal was also turned down that added to the days frustrations.

Beckenham's assistant manager Jason Taylor said: "We were beaten by the better team on the day, we were not in it at all.

"After the poor start I expected  us to get back into it but the second goal was a killer. Sometimes when you chop and change you lose the fluency.  But there were a fair few positives today.

"Darren Hall got some game time after injury, Adam (Hynes) was very impressive on his debut.

"Today's result at least reflected how we played, because we have played worse than this and won, better than this and lost or drawn.

"We can console ourselves knowing that we can play much better. When your keeper is
your man of the match by half time you know you have problems".

Beckenham were missing influential midfielder David Rose and top scorer Danny Beszant.