Whitstable Town 2-0 Harrow Borough - On our day we fear no-one, says Whitstable boss Justin Luchford

WHITSTABLE TOWN  2-0  HARROW BOROUGH
The FA Carlsberg Trophy First Qualifying Round
Saturday 29^th September 2012
Paul Parkinson reports from The Belmont

Two first half goals and a majestic goalkeeping display helped Whitstable Town complete one of the shocks of the FA Trophy this season, as Justin Luchford’s men knocked out past semi-finalists Harrow Borough, now of the Ryman Premier League.

Damian Abel’s first strike of the season set Whitstable on their way, and they had the chances to be three or four goals to the good by the time Harrow started to claw their way back into the game.

Jake Beecroft’s strike before half-time made the team talk much easier, but the crucial point was early in the second half, when Nick Shaw produced a wonderful save to keep out a Harrow penalty.

Despite creating chance after chance, Shaw and his defence repelled the visitors to earn Whitstable their place in Monday’s Second Qualifying Round draw.

When asked what pleased him most about the match, Whitstable manager, Justin Luchford, replied, “The performance definitely. For the last three games now, as a team we’ve been excellent.

“It’s not just been when we’ve got the ball, as we work so hard off the ball, and that’s why we keep clean sheets.

“I’m disappointed in a way that Nick (Shaw) has got man-of-the-match because everyone will see that and think we’ve had an onslaught at us today. But I thought we controlled the game; all right they put some balls in our box second half but they didn’t really hurt us. Nick has made saves that needed to be made, but we’ve had enough chances second half to put the game to bed.”

Luchford, whose side went into the game sitting in eleventh-place in the Ryman League Division One South table, added: “At 2-0 down they had to throw caution to the wind to stay in the tie. We put bodies behind the ball and made it hard for them to make any inroads. There weren’t any clear cut chances, but Shawy’s made some good saves, ones you would expect a goalkeeper to make.

“The penalty was a hell of a save, but although they’ve put us on the back foot, we’ve still tried to play our football and I don’t think we were ever in danger of losing the game.””

Whitstable opened the scoring with the first meaningful attack of the match on 5 minutes.

A long throw by Josh Hare into the box was flicked from the near post back to the full-back who put in a deep cross. Abel was able to nip in front of his marker to chest the ball down, then volley home from close range.

Harrow had one chance to level, with James Burgess’ 30-yard drive deflecting wide, but for the first quarter of the game, the home side dominated.

Dane Luchford put a dangerous cross into the near post, where Elvijs Putmins bravely denied Stuart Vahid and the ball wouldn’t fall to either Nicky Southall or  Beecroft.

On 18 minutes, Luchford burst into the Harrow box and as he tried to cross, was twice denied by Michael Barima. Instead, Luchford pulled the ball back to Beecroft, whose curling effort was turned round the post by a full length save to his left by Putmins.

From the resulting corner, Micheal Everitt saw his looping header tipped over.

Vahid had a chance after 20 minutes, as he picked up Beecroft’s through ball, and fired his effort at the Harrow keeper, before Abel flashed a shot from a narrow angle across the goal five minutes later.

After half an hour, Harrow’s Gary Burrell fired an effort into the flats behind the goal, but would have a better chance on 36 minutes.

Good interplay between Rob Wolleaston and Nicolai Tararov set up a chance for Burrell, and he fired an effort through the legs of Hare, only for Shaw, who saw the ball late, to dive full length to his left to turn the chance aside.

Luchford fired a shot straight at Putmins, before Beecroft lashed home Whitstable’s second on 42 minutes.

The former Tonbridge midfielder picked up the ball 25-yards out from goal, cut inside one defender before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the top right corner.

Manager Luchford was pleased with the way his team had played at the half, and said about the goals, “They were great moves. Some of our football was really good. When we play we are a really good side, people can’t get near us, and we will always find space.

“I was concerned when we were one up, that we should have gone two or three up very quickly, but when we got the second, that settled us. It would have been nice to get a third to kill the game, but that will come the more we play.””

Whatever the Harrow manager said to his players at the break obviously worked as they came out with a renewed purpose for the second half.

Within two minutes, from Steve Ferguson’s long throw, Burrell hit the deck and Mr Bentley pointed immediately to the spot.

Shaw, though, came to his team’s rescue, hurling himself to his left and clawing the ball out of the air with his left hand to deny Garry Jones.

To many of the crowd, this was the right outcome, and even Luchford agreed, adding, “I thought it was soft. I’ve asked Josh (Hare) about it, he’s training with pro’s (at Gillingham) every day, and he’s said the guys fallen over in front of him. I thought it was soft and wasn’t a pen, but Shawy’s done the job. We had them watched, saw how he takes his penalties, so a bit of credit to Dave Fairclough for his intelligence.””

Harrow continued to create chances after the penalty save, and Burrell was denied as Shaw stood up tall to block when the winger was through one-on-one, then Burgess fired high over the bar after good work from Tararov and Jockim Ehui.

Wolleaston fired a curling effort wide of Shaw’s left hand post as Whitstable were pushed deeper and deeper, and the keeper had to turn an effort from another former Tonbridge Angels player, Alwayne Jones, past the post just after the hour.

Harrow had the ball in the net on 64 minutes, but Danny Leech’s header was ruled out for a push as the ball was swung into the box, and Leech had to be alert moments later to deny Abel his second.

A Southall free-kick was floated into the box, Putmins weak punch rebounded off Laurence Harvey, and Abel fired a snapshot on the turn, that Leech deflected over his own bar.

Jones, twice, and Ferguson both had efforts at goal saved well by Shaw, and Jones had another shot deflected over by Everitt’s desperate challenge.

But the home side weren’t to be denied and Mr Bentley’s whistle saw the team congregate for a celebratory huddle on the pitch.

Boss Luchford was full of praise for the younger players in his side, and explained: “They’ve got so much passion and enthusiasm to play, and we talked in the summer about the type of player we needed to bring in, and that is the spine of the side now. It’s good to have youngsters in there, playing with desire, and on our day we fear no-one.

“We used to look at fixtures and think we’d do well to get a point. Now, we’ve done nothing different to the start of the season where we lost the first three, we’ve kept three clean sheets and long may it continue.”

Looking forward to Tuesday night’s reunion with his former side Faversham Town at The Belmont, Luchford added: “The formbook goes out of the window in Kent derbies, but we’ll aim to keep playing. We’ll do nothing different, because on our day, I don’t think there is a side in the league who can get near us.

“That said, we will have our bad days, and one was when we beat Eastbourne, but we are professional and will keep our feet on the ground. We’ll go again on Tuesday night now, Faversham is a tough game, but we’ve got to do our jobs.”

“Yes, we’ve got links there, and Faversham will always have a place in my heart. It is a fantastic club, but that’s where the sentiment ends. I’m Whitstable Town manager now, and I just want three points on Tuesday night.”

Whitstable Town:  Nick Shaw, Joshua Hare, Jack Parter, Micheal Everitt, Laurence Harvey, Rob Gilman, Nicky Southall (Shane Hamshare 74), Jake Beecroft, Stuart Vahid (Scott Heard 65), Damian Abel (Michael Smissen 83), Dane Luchford.
Subs: Jake MacKenzie, Rob French

Goals: Damian Abel 5, Jake Beecroft 42

Harrow Borough: Elvijs Putmins, Michael Barima, Ola Williams (Garry Jones 43), James Burgess, Michael Peacock, Danny Leech, Steve Ferguson, Rob Wolleaston, Nicolai Tararov (Alwayne Jones 57), Jockim Ehui (Evandro Delgadol 62), Gary Burrell.
Subs: Jon Munday, Simeon Akinola

Booked:  Michael Peacock 59

Attendance: 160
Referee: Mr Ian Bentley (West Wickham)
Assistants: Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington) and Mr Ryan Whitaker (Bexleyheath)