Whitstable Town FC

All the three's....Whitstable Town 3 v Sporting Bengal 0:   Kentish Observes Premier League:

Picture: Aaron Knight: Whilst the visitors had suffered the previous week loosing by the odd goal in seven to Lordswood Whitstable?s next opponents in their search of a top three spot, Town in contrast had lost their last three matches, one in the cup and two in the league making it three games without a win. Nil points; and unusual for Marc Seager?s normally free scoring side, no goal in the last three games either. That all changed at the Belmont with a three nil victory against the side currently third from bottom, although the performance never matched the quality of fare normally on show, assistant Mark Lane said after the match, ?three points is three points, not the prettiest of games but we needed to get back scoring goals and keep in touch with the teams at the top.?

Picture: Andy Constable: The first half was a very lack lustre affair with Andy Constable shot which clipped the post one of the only highlights of the first half until Arron Knight latched onto a neat through ball in the 44^th minute and rifled one in from distance. Visiting keeper Konv Niah will feel he should have done better but in truth Whitstable never pressured the visitors enough throughout the first half. The goal saved Seager from reading the riot act during the interval but he could not have been pleased with the way Whitstable played the game at the visitor?s tempo and did not take the game to them enough. For Sporting their best chances game via Sami Vddin, who blast his only chances way over Mark Hickson?s crossbar, Vaain apart the nippy Mohbur Rahman on the left who looked the visitors best chance of a goal.

Halftime: Whitstable Town 1 v Sporting Bengal 0 

Whitstable manager Seager replaced Stuart Harrison at the interval and the resulting re-shuffle; with Marcos Perona playing wide right with Knight, gave Town a better shape. Sporting were still in the game without really troubling Whitstable keeper Hickson then in the 60^th minute Andy Constable scored what many observers felt was a goal from offside. Constable clearly though he might be offside as well. He almost stopped, looking at both ref and linesman before drawing keeper Niah then calmly slotting the ball into an empty net to put Town firmly in the driving seat. Driven on by captain Shane Davies, Andy Keir along with Gary Sayer ruled out with slight groin strains, Town looked more comfortable in the 2^nd 45 minutes that they had in the first.

Picture Andy Martin: Town rang the changes; Andy Martin replaced Sam Prett who had worked hard without reward, Steve Marshall came on for goal scorer Andy Constable as Whitstable looked to press for the third goal. Niah saved well from Perona, and denied Knight when was in with half a chance but the third goal although scored by Martin, owed much to good work by Marshall. Picking the ball up just outside the area, he almost lost possession twice before gaining that extra yard of pace that took him past the last defender, his cut back pass was met clinically by Martin to seal all three points for Town.

Other results for the teams at the top of the table meant that Whitstable look a bit more in touch in fifth place; with games in hand on some of the teams above. More of the same next week and Seager can start to realistically look at finishing in that all-important third spot.

Full time Whitstable Town 3 v Sporting Bengal 0 

Team: Mark Hickson: Tom Parker: Rob Thomas: Michael Adcock: Shane Davies:(capt) Marcos Perona: Marc Seager: Stuart Harrison: Aaron Knight: Andy Constable: Sam Prett:

Subs: Andy Martin: Gary Ward: Mark Lane: Steve Marshall: