Nine more wins to stay up - Munday

Thursday 21st January 2010

WHITSTABLE TOWN boss Mark Munday says his side must pick themselves up following their midweek Kent Senior Cup exit and climb out of the relegation zone with a home win over fourth-placed side Walton & Hersham at the weekend, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Oystermen reached the final of the Kent Senior Cup last season, losing 6-1 to Blue Square South side Welling United at Park View Road, but were dumped out of this season’s competition at the first hurdle (the second round), going out 3-0 to a Cray Wanderers side that are fourth-from-bottom in the league above.

Once again, the heroics from goalkeeper Kevin Fewell, kept the home side at bay, until the 56th minute when Dan Dolton put through his own net, following Ross Lover’s free-kick.

Gary Sayer collected his second yellow card (the first which led to Lewis Wood seeing Fewell save his first half penalty) in the 86th minute, before Lover and George Porter added to the scoreline late on.

“You’ll rue the day you went out of this competition, because it’s a nice cup to be in as a distraction as we found last year,” Munday, who played for 81 minutes, told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s league game, Munday knows the importance of picking up three points.

Although the Surrey outfit are sitting in fourth place with 38 points from 22 games, Whitstable dropped into the drop zone in midweek, as Walton & Hersham were held to a goal-less draw by Eastbourne Town, who leapfrogged over the Kent side.

Whitstable, who are now at the half-way stage of their campaign, go into the game second-from-bottom with five wins and two draws, six points ahead of Ashford Town (who have three games in hand), and it would be a crying shame to lose two Kent clubs out of the Ryman League.

“The bread and butter of the league is the important stuff and I’ve said before (the Kent Senior Cup tie) served it’s purpose, got a few people running for 90 minutes and it got their match legs going and we will be full tilt on Saturday.”

When asked how many points Whitstable Town need to maintain their Ryman League status, Munday predicts another nine wins will see them safe.

“I would probably say somewhere round about 40-42 points will generally be ok,” he said.

“It’s still very tight. If we have a couple of good wins we go up to midtable. If we have a couple of bad results we’re back in the melting point so it’s imperative that we keep picking up points and it’s imperative we’re hard to beat.”

Clint Gooding, Sam Denly and Tom Parker - three key players - are once again available for selection, having served their suspensions.

Visit Whitstable Town’s website: www.whitstabletownfc.co.uk

Whitstable Town v Walton & Hersham

Ryman League Division One South

Saturday 23rd January 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

At The Belmont Ground, Belmont Road, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1QP