Cray Wanderers 2-0 Whitstable Town - Seager: My team have weight of the world on their shoulders

The Oystermen have already tasted defeat at Chipstead (1-2) and Ashford Town (0-4), and goals from striker Tony Atkins and defender Steve Aris ensured Cray Wanderers won comfortably at Hayes Lane tonight.

Such poor form - they have failed to score in their last four league games - ensure Whitstable remain second from bottom after just six games.

Cray Wanderers, meanwhile, went into this Kent derby with a 100% home record and they brought in the versatile Tony Dolby for Tommy Whitnell, who was relegated to the substitutes bench.

However, there was concern for their star striker Shawn Beveney, as boss Ian Jenkins explained to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“He’s got a problem with his knee,” said the long-serving boss. “The swelling hasn’t gone yet so we don’t know if it’s medial ligament damage or cruciate, so until the swelling goes down we can’t really tell.

“We’re hoping it’s the medial and he’ll be back in two or three weeks. He seems to think he’ll be back Saturday, but I’m not really going to hold my breath with that.”

Whitstable Town, meanwhile, made two changes to the side that were defeated 2-0 at home to Fleet Town at the weekend. Mark Munday and James Campbell made way for Jake Gess and Danny Tipple.

Aris, however, thought he had given Cray Wanderers the lead, with just 228 seconds on the clock.

Dolby swung in a left-footed free-kick from thirty-yards for the central defender to head past goalkeeper Kevin Fewell, only for an offside flag to dampen celebrations.

Whitstable Town almost broke the deadlock, with a classic counter attack, after 17 minutes.

A long ball up to striker Ian Pulman saw him cut inside before rolling the ball to leading goalscorer Gess, whose right-footed lob from 25-yards, agonisingly cleared the crossbar, with home goalkeeper Jack Bradshaw rooted to the spot.

At the other end, Jamie Kempster should have done better with a left-footed stroked shot, which was comfortably gathered by Kevin Fewell, low to his right.

However, it was no surprise when Cray Wanderers deservedly opened the scoring after 25 minutes.

A deep cross from the left by Colin Luckett found striker Tony Atkins in space in the middle of the penalty area and Fewell could only watch as the header looped over him and into the net as Atkins opened his goalscoring account for the new season.

Whitstable tried to hit back immediately when Pulman was fouled having turned Aris.

But a right-footed Marcos Perona free-kick from thirty-yards was turned around the left-hand post by young goalkeeper Jack Bradshaw.

Cray Wanderers’ almost doubled their lead just 29 seconds of the second half elapsed.

Atkins’ flick header released the quick Sterling inside full-back Gary Sayer and as the winger looked to dink the ball over the advancing Fewell, the Whitstable goalkeeper gathered the ball bravely.

Whitstable went close from their second corner of the night when Tom Parker’s flag-kick was palmed up into the air by Bradshaw and the goalkeeper recovered to block Paul Ainsworth’s header at the far post.

But Cray Wanderers wrapped up the victory as early as the 50^th minute - as Whitstable didn’t appear capable of clawing their way back into the game after that.

Dolby’s corner was cleared by the visiting defence only for Kempster to play an early ball back to the Cray forward.

Dolby's near post cross was deflected by Ainsworth, only for Aris to stoop to head home at the far post.

Aris almost turned hero to villain when his intended pass for Danny Chapman, who was protecting the back four all night, was intercepted by Perona, but his tired right-footed shot, from the edge of the penalty area, in the 66^th minute, was comfortably saved.

A hopeful cross into the box by Luckett was headed clear by Ainsworth and the ball dropped beautifully for Dolby to strike a left-footed volley from 25-yards that Fewell could only palm into the air before claiming the ball in front of Kinch.

Whitstable striker Scott Punton had a couple of chances late in the game - powering a header over following a corner from fellow substitute Jack Tanner and then spurning a great chance when Pulman should really have done better.

Despite the defeat, Whitstable Town boss Marc Seager, who lost striker Dave Cory to a knee injury during the second half, took the positives out of tonight’s match.

“What we’ve done tonight, not the greatest performance on Saturday and what we’ve done, we’ve come up here against a very good side,” Seager told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“It was always going to be very tough for us to get anything tonight. We’ve set our stalls out and I thought we put on a good show.

“I thought it was a massive step in the right direction. I thought for one of the first times this season we had a lot of shape.

“The lads gave me everything. We lost 2-0 and we’re disappointed with the two goals we gave away but other than that they had one other chance and I think they found it hard to open us up.

“I think we might have had a bit more courage when we were in possession of the ball in the final third - that comes with confidence.

“The fact that we haven’t scored for (the last four league games) is a big dent in the confidence, but we’ll work on that.

“There were a lot of positives. We’ve been going through a bit of a tough spell. The bank holiday weekend did really knock the boys’ confidence.

“We’ve had a good chat in there before the game (tonight) and I just want the boys to start enjoying themselves again. They look like they’ve got the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“At the end of the day, this is a hobby. When they wake up tomorrow morning that’s when they should have their heads down as they’ve got another day at work, where here this is a release valve.

“This is where they have their bit of fun out there on the dance floor and that’s what I want them to do.

“I thought we played some good stuff out there at times. It’s always going to be difficult as Cray are a good side. We knew it was going to be difficult - we gave a good account of ourselves.”

For Jenkins, tonight’s win - their third successive home win - puts the club in a healthy position of fourth place in the Ryman League Division One South table - a good position to be in after six games.

“I did say to all our lads at the beginning of the season, if we win all our home games then the away games take care of themselves, because there’s no pressure on them,” said Jenkins.

“I think there’s eleven sides who could win it out right - and we’re one of them - so we’ll just plod on and see what happens.

“If we’d have lost tonight, I would have been devastated because I think we dominated the whole game.

“We limited them to a couple of half chances, worked really hard. We had a sloppy period in the first half when we gave it away too cheaply when we had good possession, which was disappointing.

“We’ve got to work on that and probably around the edge of the box we’ve got to be a bit more ruthless and put it to bed - we should be scoring more goals.”

Whitstable Town chairman Mr Tony Rouse admitted afterwards that he is disappointed with the clubs points - and goals - tally so far this season.

“I’m almost going to say we’ve been there before at this stage of the season, but of course we’re concerned,” Mr Rouse told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“We don’t want to be down at the bottom of the table and I don’t think we deserve to be - but the performances will say otherwise.

“I think if you look at the league table tonight, we’ve leaked 16 goals, which is far too many and we need to tighten up the ship and we need to start scoring goals.”

Cray Wanderers: Jack Bradshaw, Aaron Day, Colin Luckett, Danny Chapman, Mark Willy, Steve Aris, Scott Kinch, Jamie Kempster, Tony Dolby, Tony Atkins, Tyrone Sterling.
Subs: Ryan Royston, Dean Morris, Andrew Callaghan, Mark Hammond, Tommy Whitnell.

Goals: Tony Atkins 25, Steve Aris 50

Booked: Aaron Day 90

Whitstable Town: Kevin Fewell, Gary Sayer, Danny Tipple, Liam Quinn, Paul Ainsworth, Tom Parker, Dan Whisker (Jack Tanner 57), Marcos Perona, Ian Pulman, Dave Cory (Scott Punton 69), Jake Gess.
Subs: Tommy Martin, Nick Bagley, Dylan Macvicar.

Booked: Ian Pulman 53, Marcos Perona 55, Liam Quinn 85

Attendance: 137
Referee: Mr Ian Gosling (Sittingbourne)
Assistants: Mr Ian Fissenden (Gillingham) & Mr Harry Hill (Dartford)