Kentish Football 
Whitstable Town 2-1 Chatham Town - It's a massive three points but the job's not done - Peter Nott
Saturday 09th April 2011
WHITSTABLE TOWN 2-1 CHATHAM TOWN
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 9th April 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Belmont Road
TEN-MAN Whitstable Town edged towards maintaining their Ryman League status with a massive win over relegation rivals Chatham Town.
Whitstable faced an up-hill struggle when James Peacock was sent off for lashing out at Anthony Hogg after seventeen minutes and Chatham Town missed the best chance of a poor first half when striker Billy Shinners stroked a scuffed shot against the far post.
But Chatham - who arrived at The Belmont without a win in their last ten games and inside the relegation zone - grabbed a 64th minute lead through Kane Rice’s fluke, before the introduction of Gareth Cornhill stung the home side into life and he rifled home an 81st minute equaliser, before the impressive Dan Wisker headed home the winner within two minutes following a blunder from visiting goalkeeper James Tedder. Chatham were unlucky again when Shinners cracked a shot against the near post towards the end.
As a result of their ninth league win of the season, Whitstable are now six points clear of their Kent rivals, and leapfrogged over Corinthian-Casuals into nineteenth place in the Ryman League Division One South table.
Despite struggling at the wrong end of the table, Whitstable are the fourth best supported club in the division, with average gates of 197 and a crowd of 245 flocked through the turnstiles in sun-kissed Kent.
Unfortunately both sides proved exactly why they are struggling as the first half produced a poor game of stop-start football, with goalscoring chances at a premium.
Peacock apologised to his team-mates after the game and his wages were spent on buying his team-mates a drink after referee Mr Michael O’Keefe showed the central defender a straight red card for his kick at Hogg, who was booked.
Nott was forced to sacrifice Michael Yianni so he could slot central defender Louis Smith beside Peter Hawkins and Ian Pulman was deployed as a lone striker, with Lloyd Blackman playing in behind him.
Nott said: “I thought the tackle was equally as bad as the retaliation. I think the ref’s got to be consistent, either giving two yellows or two reds.
“PK (Peacock) has got stud marks all the way down that go on for about ten inches all the way down the side of his hip. Maybe the tackle’s bad enough to be a red but he reacted and he’s let us down. He’s apologised but he is such a good player to never get that out of his game and that’s what we need to do, but as it turned out today it could’ve been costly.
“I said to him that could’ve been the difference of us staying up and going down. He’s a lucky boy.
“I’ve known him since he was fourteen and I still believe that he’s such a good player he’s good outweighs his bad. I just said to him he’s old enough now and mature enough now not to react.
“He gets involved in the game and he wants to take the law into his own hands.
“He knows he’s let himself down. I said, “you don’t need to say sorry to me, you need to shake all of the boys’ by the hand and buy them a beer because they’ve saved you from a lot of embarrassment.”
Rice floated in the resulting free-kick into towards the far post and Shinners sent a weak header into Danny Twyman’s gloves.
But Shinners squandered the only real chance of a dull first half in the 26th minute when he was released by a fine pass from Jason Dolby, which cut open Smith and right-back Kane Harrington, but the striker stroked a left-footed shot, which bounced past Twyman’s fingertips and agonisingly against the far post.
Whitstable created a half-chance in the 40th minute when former Ramsgate keeper Twyman punted the ball up field and the hard-working Blackman flicked the ball on for Pulman to hook a right-footed shot past the near post from eight-yards.
Wisker then released Scott Heard down the left, who was causing Chatham skipper Brad Potter problems, before he looped a cross into the box and Blackman towered above Ryan Laker to head wide.
A home steward summed up the poor quality on show during the first half when he told his mate, “Two bad teams, three bad officials. Absolute rubbish!”
Chatham were presented with an early second half chance when Jermaine Darlington tripped Shinners on the edge of the penalty box.
Hogg’s left-footed free-kick from 20-yards fell kindly to Gary Ward, who was denied by a fine near post block from Twyman.
Whitstable then increased the tempo and Ant Bodle laid the ball off to Blackman, who cut the ball back to right-back Kane Harrington, who had time and space to float a cross into the box and Bodle cracked over a left-footed shot on the turn from 16-yards.
Another chance came the home side’s way just 55 seconds later when Blackman’s cross was also hit on the turn by Pulman from 22-yards, which again sailed over.
But Chatham Town grabbed a fortuitous lead in the 64th minute, which had they kept then they would have been equal on points (36) with their hosts.
Rice rode a challenge from Hawkins and took the ball out to the right wing before whipping in a cross with the outside of his right-boot, which curled over everybody’s head and all that Twyman could do was watch the ball drop down into the top far corner.
Nott added: “I didn’t think - and it’s not being disrespectful to them - even with ten players, I thought we could still hang on for the nil-nil. They then scored a fluke of a goal and yet credit to the boys that is the time when heads could go down and we’ll cave in, but we just produced a great fifteen minutes or whatever it was when we scored.”
Chatham’s survival bid would have improved just two minutes later, had the woodwork not saved Whitstable.
Bill Parkinson whipped in a cross, which was flicked on well by Joe Fuller (just on the edge of the box) and Shinner slammed his shot against the near post from an acute angle.
However, the introduction of Cornhill sparked Whitstable into life and the move from Nott to bring him on may have maintained the club’s Ryman League status.
Wisker’s pass sent Cornhill towards the left by-line and his cut back was met by Pulman at the near post and his shot into the ground was turned around the post by the diving Tedder.
Whitstable levelled in the 81st minute through Cornhill’s ninth and most crucial goal of the season.
Pulman picked the ball up inside Chatham’s half and intelligently sprayed the ball out to Harrington on the right, who cut inside the rolled the ball back to Pulman, who picked out Cornhill in space inside the penalty area and he crashed a right-footed drive over the keeper into the top far corner.
Wisker - who was named man-of-the-match - scored his third and most important goal of the season as Whitstable got lucky within two minutes.
Cornhill looped a free-kick into the box and giant keeper Tedder (with his arms high above his head) dropped the ball and Wisker scooped to nod a bouncing ball into the back of the Chatham net.
Whitstable left-back, Darlington, raced from box-to-box, holding off a tracking run from Potter, and his cut back from the by-line found Pulman, who shot straight at the Chatham keeper.
Explaining why he dropped Cornhill to the bench, Nott replied, “Gareth will admit, I think he’s been poor for the last three or four games. He looked like he lost a little bit of confidence and he’s always going to give you that and maybe he needed to be thrown out of the firing line and come back into it.
“We had some quality on the bench today. I think the boys that have come on, at least you knew we were putting quality on and that certainly helps.
“Lloyd Blackman, who missed the last two games (through suspension) ran his socks off as he had to play a withdrawn midfield role. He said to me ‘gaffer, just get me off, my legs have gone, and we decided to keep Gareth on the left knowing he will drift in and if he did drift in and hit one like that, it’s an unstoppable one and we’ve had a bit of luck with the second one. The keeper’s obviously miss-judged it but I think the effort that we put in today we probably deserved that little bit of luck.”
Desperate Chatham threw everything at Whitstable at the death, and a couple of goal-line blocks from Wisker ensured eased their relegation fears.
Nott added: “As I said before, it’s a massive game and a massive three points. The job’s not done by any means. We’ve still got to get two more wins out of the last four ( Eastbourne Town, Horsham YMCA, Ramsgate and Corinthian-Casuals).
“I’m just delighted with the character. We’ve taken a bit of flack over the last couple of games (losing 6-0 to Metropolitan Police in their last home game) and we had a few people starting to get on the players backs and questioning us.
“When you do something like that it shows the togetherness in the camp because if we didn’t have that today we wouldn’t have come back from that with ten players.
“That just shows the spirit that we’ve got. If few just keep that going now for the last four games then we’ll be alright.”
Chatham Town must win at least two of their last four league games (against Dulwich Hamlet, Walton Casuals, Eastbourne Town and Bognor Regis Town) to avoid relegation into the Kent League, although there’s speculation that the club will be moved into Ryman League Division One North next season if they do get a reprieve.
“I really hope they get out of it,” said Nott. “I think the Kent club’s work together. The manager’s have got a good relationship and it gives me no pleasure sending them down here. I’ve only got to think where we are at Whitstable and we’ve got to win that and I really hope Chatham get enough results to get themselves out of danger.
“We’re not taking our foot of the pedal. We’ve got to keep working and working and two more wins and I think that will be enough.”
Unfortunately Chatham Town manager Paul Foley declined to comment after the game.
Whitstable Town: Danny Twyman, Kane Harrington, Jermaine Darlington, Dan Wisker, James Peacock, Peter Hawkins, Michael Yianni (Louis Smith 21), Ant Bodle, Lloyd Blackman (Steven Lloyd 90), Ian Pulman, Scott Heard (Gareth Cornhill 69).
Subs: Danny Williams, Dan Hadlow
Goals: Gareth Cornhill 81, Dan Wisker 83
Booked: Ian Pulman 12, Louis Smith 69
Sent Off: James Peacock 17
Chatham Town: James Tedder, Bill Parkinson, Ryan Laker, Jason Dolby, Brad Potter, Jason Barton, Joe Fuller, Anthony Hogg, Billy Shinners, Kane Rice, Gary Ward.
Subs: Uche Ibemere, Jon Hogg, Kevin Watson, Charlie Ticehurst, Adam Molloy
Goal: Kane Rice 64
Booked: Anthony Hogg 17, Brad Potter 82
Attendance: 245
Referee: Mr Michael O’Keefe (Sevenoaks)
Assistants: Mr Rob Baker (Maidstone) & Mr David Smart (Maidstone)
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd