Whitstable successfully completed a "cup double", winning their second knockout game in four days, both away from home against tough opposition. In this county cup quarter final, a short trip to play a Faversham team that had already taken maximum points from their two league meetings this season, resulted in a surprisingly comfortable Whitstable win. Harvey Smith put them ahead early in a relatively quiet first half and that was the only goal that separated the teams at the break. Whitstable dominated the early stages of the second half and Ronald Sithole drilled in a second goal just after the hour mark. When Sithole was felled in the penalty area ten minutes later, Smith stepped up to put the tie virtually beyond doubt. Whitstable might easily have added to their score, going close on several occasions before Faversham raised their game towards the end after making several substitutions and Danny Parish scored a consolation in added time, but Whitstable were through to the last four.

The teams last met just after Christmas when a crowd of 1,193 watched current league leaders Faversham Town recover from conceding two early goals to eventually win 4-3. Whitstable had progressed to this quarter final by winning away matches at Canterbury City and VCD Athletic, whereas Faversham had beaten Rusthall and Tunbridge Wells. Faversham made several changes to their team for this cup match, starting without several regulars including leading scorer Tashi-Jay Kwayie. Whitstable also made changes to the team that had beaten Walsham le Willows on penalties in the FA Vase at the weekend, with Will Thomas, Liam Gillies and Dean Grant returning in place of Jayden Boulton, Josh Oliver and Adem Ramadan. There were once again plenty of vocal supporters for the Oysters among the crowd of 366 on a very cold and somewhat foggy evening.

Faversham began quite confidently and Ian Draycott shot wide from a tight angle on the right. A long ball from Matt Newman was controlled by Daniel Thompson, but he shot wide from the edge of the area. It was Whitstable that took the lead however shortly afterwards in the 13th minute when a long diagonal ball from captain Jake McIntyre just cleared Faversham's left back Jarred Trespaderne to release Ronald Sithole on the right and he made his way into the box before clipping a nice cross over to the back post where Harvey Smith arrived to side foot the ball home. The home team had a good chance to equalise when Trespaderne set up Johan Caney-Bryan just inside the box but he steered his shot wide.

Whitstable goalkeeper Dan Colmer, the shootout hero from Saturday, was called upon to hold a cross from Draycott after some good approach play. In the 33rd minute, Whitstable went close to doubling their lead when Sithole had a shot blocked and the rebound reached Jerald Aboagye whose shot rattled the side netting. Smith curled a dangerous low ball in from the left that Archie Burford pushed around the far post for a corner. Just before half time, Sam Hasler was booked for bringing down Sithole and Smith took the free kick which landed just on top of the net, so Whitstable led by the single goal when the teams left the pitch.

Although Whitstable had the better of the majority of the second half, player manager Jamie Coyle had to be alert to head behind a dangerous Caney-Bryan cross in the 50th minute. Sithole and Coyle combined to send Grant through on goal, but Burford did well to save at his near post. Smith tried an ambitious volley that bent just away from the far post before Whitstable scored their second goal in the 61st minute. Grant sent the ball forward towards the tireless Mikey Dalton and then Sithole collected it, went past a couple of defenders and drove a left footed shot into the bottom right corner. Sithole was causing plenty of problems for the home defenders and Burford managed to push away his low cross, but Smith crossed the ball back into the middle where Grant was denied by a brave stop by the goalkeeper on the line. Dalton next passed to Grant who strode forward, but shot wide from 20 yards.

By this point Faversham had started to make changes and eventually several familiar faces were introduced to try to turn things around, but shortly after Trespaderne had to limp off following a heavy challenge, Whitstable added a third goal. It came from the penalty spot after Sithole had played a one-two with Fin Cotton before being brought down by Jerzy Krzyszka in the box. Smith tucked away the penalty for his second goal of the game to make it 3-0 in the 72nd minute. Smith headed a right wing cross wide before a Faversham corner was headed over the top by Thompson. The dangerous Sithole somehow got past three defenders by the right corner flag and crossed for Cotton whose shot struck the outside of the post. The home team did finish the game strongly and in the 88th minute Nathan Wood set up Danny Parish whose rising shot was tipped over by Colmer. Hasler tried a 40 yard special that flew over the bar, substitute Bradley Schafer had a couple of efforts blocked, but Faversham finally scored a consolation goal in the final minute. Kwayie got away on the right and pulled the ball back for Parish to fire in, with has shot taking a deflection off Coyle to give Colmer no chance. The final whistle blew after Hasler fired another shot wide and Whitstable had reached the Kent Senior Trophy semi-finals for the second successive year, having lost to Croydon at that stage last season. This time they are joined by Larkfield & New Hythe, Bearsted and Stansfeld as they await the draw.

Whitstable are back at home on Saturday to face Sutton Athletic in a SCEFL Premier Division fixture before they entertain Fleet Town the following week in the FA Vase Fifth Round.

Faversham	Data	Whitstable
2	Shots on target	7
8	Shots off target	7
3	Shots blocked	4
8	Corners	6
11	Fouls conceded	7
1	Offside	2
0	Penalties	1

Faversham Town
Archie Burford, Tariq Ossai, Jarred Trespaderne (Danny Parish 73), Sam Hasler, Matt Newman, Ben Gorham (Jerzy Krzyszka 67), Ian Draycott (Nathan Wood 68), Johan Caney-Bryan (Tashi-Jay Kwayie 62), Daniel Thompson, Billy Bennett (c) (Bradley Schafer 53), Kieron Campbell.
Subs (unused): none
Goal: Danny Parish 90+3
Yellow card: Sam Hasler 45

Whitstable Town
Dan Colmer, Jerald Aboagye, Jake McIntyre (c), Mikey Dalton, Jamie Coyle, Will Thomas, Ronald Sithole, Fin Cotton, Dean Grant (Josh Oliver 82), Liam Gillies, Harvey Smith.
Subs (unused): Adem Ramadan, Josh Robson, Kai Jeffrey, Nico Grierson.
Goals: Harvey Smith 13, (pen) 72, Ronald Sithole 61.

Attendance: 366
Referee: Rhys Jeffery
Assistants: Harrison Clark & Danny Horwood