Three Points On The Road

WELLING TOWN 0 WHITSTABLE TOWN 3
SCEFL Premier Division
Tuesday March 19 2024 19:45

Whitstable travelled to play bottom of the table Welling Town in a rearranged fixture after a run of four winless home games, but hoping to resume their better away form, having taken seven points from their last three away games. They missed several scoring opportunities in the first half, but eventually found the net just before the break when Josh Williams finished well. Welling offered very little throughout the game and the result was never really in doubt once Williams had headed in a corner kick just before the hour mark. Tyler Anderson added a third in the closing minutes to give the final score a more realistic look.

Welling Town had an amazing 3-2 win at Whitstable in November, scoring twice to turn things around after falling behind in the 91st minute. That was Whitstable’s only defeat in a run of fourteen games, twelve of which were won. Nomadic Welling played at Chatham last season and will move to K Sports next season, but for now are playing their home games at Phoenix Sports and with just 73 in attendance, and a large proportion of those supporting Whitstable, it was an indication of how difficult things must be for the team to remain competitive in this division. They kicked off this match at the bottom of the league, but a good result would have lifted them above Rusthall. Whitstable’s play-off hopes were looking slim, but not yet mathematically impossible. There were another couple of changes to the Whitstable starting eleven, with the returning Ollie Gray given a role up front.

The players were kept waiting for several minutes after emerging from the changing rooms as the match officials checked the balls and nets, but when the game eventually began Whitstable were the first to threaten. Reece Gillies was allowed to make good progress down the left before striking a low shot from 20 yards that goalkeeper Connor Collins managed to push away. In the 20th minute, Josh Williams won possession on the left of the penalty area and pulled the ball back for James Jeffrey, but he steered his shot wide from 10 yards. Sam Bailey tried a long range shot that was comfortably gathered by Jordan Perrin; this proved to be the only effort on target that the Whitstable goalkeeper had to save. Josh Oliver had a shot blocked, Collins saved another from Reece Gillies and Liam Gillies put his shot wide after being set up by Williams. Gray hooked a Jake Mackenzie pass towards goal and the ball was caught under the bar by Collins. It looked like being another frustrating story of missed chances for Whitstable, but they scored just as the half moved into added time. A long clearance by Tom Mills was headed on by Gray and Oliver then flicked it into the path of Williams who went past two defenders before finding the bottom right corner to give his team a 1-0 half time lead.

Oliver sent a shot whistling over the bar soon after the restart and Whitstable won several early corners, one of which was taken short and to the annoyance of the away bench flagged offside. There was an usually high number of offsides in this game – fifteen, in fact, although a couple looked somewhat debatable. Welling made two substitutions just before falling further behind in the 59th minute when they conceded a soft corner and Mikey Dalton’s delivery from the right was headed in by Williams. More substitutions followed by both teams and Collins saved a Gray shot. There was little to excite the sparse crowd as the game drifted to its inevitable conclusion, but Whitstable did make it 3-0 in the 88th minute. George Sheminant played a good ball forward for Williams who took it out to the left before crossing low for Tyler Anderson to score from close range. The closing moments were mostly about the match officials, as Whitstable head coach Craig Coles got into a debate with the assistant who twice called the referee across in the space of a few minutes, resulting in two yellow cards and an early departure. Harvey Smith was then sent to the sin bin with a few seconds remaining, but the game had long been over as a contest.

Whitstable have another away trip on Saturday when they visit Thamesmead to face play-off contenders Erith Town.

Welling Town
Connor Collins, David Hjelm (Luke Hearn 65), Veron Nzinga (George Williams 58), Ryan Croucher (c) (Joe Plant 56), Lewis Mingle, Jamie Hurst, Sam Bailey (Dominic Wynter-Stephens 80), Alfie Sanders, Ayodeji Owoeye (Harry Main 74), Tom Goodayle, Perez Goumou.
Subs (unused): none

Whitstable Town
Jordan Perrin, Jake Mackenzie, Reece Gillies, Mikey Dalton, Will Thomas, Tom Mills (c), Josh Oliver (Tyler Anderson 61), Liam Gillies (George Sheminant 77), James Jeffrey (Harvey Smith 61), Ollie Gray (Manny Cuttress 66), Josh Williams.
Sub (unused): Dan Eason
Goals: Josh Williams 45+1, 59, Tyler Anderson 88.
Yellow cards: Reece Gillies 43, Tyler Anderson 82.
Sin bin: Harvey Smith 90+6

Attendance: 73
Referee: Daniel Davis
Assistants: Danny King & Christopher Bowdery