?Town can?t beat Conneally?  Erith Town 0 Whitstable Town 0  

Andy Constable leading the line

Erith came into the game bursting with deserved confidence on the back of a good 2-0 defeat of Erith & Belvedere the previous week in the KST and confident that their ten goals in their last three competitive games they would be up for the challenge against Whitstable.  ?We?ve been knocking in the goals,? said a committee member; ?that?s ten we?ve scored in the last four games in the Cups and the League, the lads are full of confidence and we feel we can pull off a result against Whitstable.?

Whitstable?s player/manager Marc Seager, chose to partner Andy Constable instead of Steve Marshal upfront with Sam Prett, Marshall confined to the bench as Seager juggled his team. Seager said before the game: ?I will pick a side that I feel can do the job at Erith, it?s going to be tough they are down at the lower end of the league table but they have made plenty of changes to their squad over the last few weeks, we will be in for a hard game and I need my players to be aware of that.? 

  It was the visitors who dominated the first period of play, in the 15^th minute Robbie Summers testing their big keeper Chris Conneally with quality a long-range shot Conneally was equal to it. Constable proved early on he had the hunger; good link up play with Stuart Harrison and Prett almost reaped instant rewards, Harrison?s fierce strike just over the crossbar. Then Constable went close with a header as Erith struggled to get into the visitors half, the closest they came was when Matt Russell charged down Whitstable keeper Mark Brown?s hurried clearance, the rebound just flashing wide of Erith?s goal, then five minutes later a shot by Erith?s Richard Usherwood clipped Whitstable?s crossbar. For the visitors the pairing of Shane Davies and Michael Adcock in central defence worked well, which poses a headache for manager Seager with club captain Andy Keir sitting on the bench. In the dying minutes of the first half Prett had shot saved by Conneally, then Marcos Perona was a whisker away at the far post from a great Constable cross but the ball was scrambled away.  Direclty from that Whitstable won a free kick, which was fairly central, the ball was only half cleared by Erith and fell to Constable whose shot had goal written all over it, Conneally performing heroics to turn the shot away low down at the far post at the last moment.

Whitstable Town came out with purpose, the visitors however started much brighter than they had in the first 45 minutes and were soon into their stride. As a spectacle the game lost its way for long periods in the second half, both sides guilty of the poor final ball into the penalty box. Erith played too many long balls, whilst the visitors tried a might too hard when a simple ball was enough, cries from the Whitstable bench to, ?relax? went unheeded as time and again Whitstable squandered very good approach play but failed to open up the home side with the final pass enough to score. Toby Roy, stepping up from the reserves had a good enough game, as did Tom Parker on the other flank but like Harrison and others they all needed to be more involved when they did not have the ball.
It was Roy who was the provider of a great cross for Prett, his fine header beating Conneally, but it rebounded off Conneally?s crossbar and out of harms way. Conneally then saved well from a Perona well-struck shot, the big keeper getting down low to parry away the ball. In the 75th minute Marshall replaced Prett, Harrison went off and Wayne Barrett came on as Whitstable tried all they could to nick a win, Marshall and Constable both had chances but stoic defending by Jacob Stone, and Erith held firm. Even though the same player had a penalty appeal against him turn down for goodness? know what when he hauled Constable over inside the area half way through the first half.