Staging Margate was a "massive learning curve" for promotion chasing Whitstable - EXCLUSIVE

Whitstable Town chairman Mr Tony Rouse admits yesterday’s FA Cup second qualifying round game against their fourth placed Ryman Premier League neighbours Margate at the Belmont was a “massive learning curve” for the Kent League club, writes Stephen McCartney.

A passionate crowd of 1,114, the largest at the Belmont for nearly forty years, witnessed an enthralling FA Cup clash and the Oystermen were in dreamland when Jake Gess scored his fourth goal of the season after 40 minutes - but against the run of play.

But the Kent League brave hearts, who are still on top of the table after collecting maximum points from their first six league games, suffered heartbreak as two late goals, scored by Lawrence Yiga and James Pinnock, sent the Thanet side through.

However, with Thamesmead Town and Faversham Town being held to draws by Erith Town and Tunbridge Wells respectively, Whitstable are one point clear at the top of the table - with two games in hand.

And with the Belmont already passing Ryman League ground criteria, a proud Mr Rouse feels the coastal club is ready to follow in the foot steps of former Kent League rivals Ramsgate.

With his club seven minutes away from pulling off the shock result of the round, Mr Rouse, however, was delighted with the performance of the team.

“I’m thrilled to bits,” he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after the Oystermen’s FA Cup run came to an end, after beating Guildford, Bedfont and Croydon Athletic in the earlier rounds.

“It’s been a massive day for the club. I would say from a club point of view it’s been a massive learning curve.

“One that I think we are taking all the plusses from because we’ve played a side today who the pundits would have for promotion from the Ryman League, two leagues above us.

“We haven’t been outclassed by them. Yes sure, they’ve won it on the day 2-1, but I would say if you spoke to any of the Margate players and certainly their management team, they’re going home relieved tonight because they know they were under the cosh.”

Whitstable’s young side were playing against several Margate players that were playing in the Nationwide Conference for Gravesend & Northfleet last season.

Mr Rouse said: “Fifteen minutes to go they’re trailing to a Jake Gess goal - one of our products from our under eighteen’s.

“Today we had a skipper (Alex Hossick) who was eighteen. The eldest player on our side, yes, Steve Marshall up front, 34. Steve’s been there and done it. We’ve got a very young side.”

There is now an expectation on the club that they can win the Kent League title for the very first time in their history and gain promotion into the Ryman League.

But Mr Rouse feels the young team needs time.

He said: “After the game one of our sponsors said to our management team “If I could give you something that you wanted, what would you want to progress this team?”

“And they said “time” - that’s all they need is time.

“They’re young lads, they’re coming up together as a football team, they’re learning together and that’s really what they want. They need time to gel.

“Six games into the league unbeaten but the league’s not won in October. They know that. Whose top at Christmas is irrelevant. It’s whose top in May next year.

“It’s just been a tremendous learning curve. I think on that Whitstable can take a lot of positives from.

“Someone reminded me today that its nearly 40 years since we’ve had a crowd in excess of 1,000 here at the Belmont.

“I mean the place was rocking today. It was a good atmosphere. On the pitch, I would say was not the best game that you’ll ever see, but it was competitive.

“There was no nastiness, there was not one nasty tackle, there was no nonsense from one of the players.

“We had a bit of crowd trouble but our supporters aren’t used to this sort of level and we’ll learn from it.

“I’ve said a couple of times it’s a learning curve and we’ll go forward from it.”

So will we see Whitstable Town playing Ryman League football next season, joining their former Kent League rivals Cray Wanderers, Ramsgate and Maidstone United in the big-time?

“I would say that this has given us a massive taste on what is potentially the future for the club,” said Mr Rouse.

“We’ve already been talking now possibly we’d have to contend with this every week if we went up into the Ryman League and what provisions would we make it that happened.

“Well, we’ve got the structure within the football club already. We’ve got the facilities, we’ve got the players and management and the people on the committee and we’ve got the will.

“So I think with those things together potentially we’ll be able to gain promotion.

“What (manager) Jim Ward and (chairman) Richard (Lawson) have done down at Ramsgate is truly remarkable. They have taken everyone by surprise.

“To win back to back promotions is unheard off. I truly believe they haven’t been given the credit they truly deserve.

“They have been truly remarkable and I would say in closing if Whitstable can do a Ramsgate that would emulate a very successful side and we’d love to do that.”

Player-manager Marc Seager is expected to make a return from injury during Tuesday night’s Kent League Cup tie against Sporting Bengal United.

The east Londoners crashed to a 9-0 defeat at Beckenham Town yesterday, but Seager believes his side will bounce back from their brave FA Cup exit.

“It’s important now that we bounce back,” he said. “We showed we could bounce back from (our FA Vase) defeat last week with a win against Hythe and we have to do that on Tuesday against Sporting Bengal.”

But Seager is hungry to lead the club into the Ryman League, adding: “We’re looking to get out of the Kent League. I think we’re good enough to do that but it’s not all about one day.

“We’ve got to do it over the next 6-7 months and come the end of April the league table doesn’t lie.

“It’s no good us having a good August, September and we let ourselves down for the rest of the season. Personally we’ve got a good side here.”

Seager feels he needs to “earn his money” to rally his disappointed troops for their cup game against Sporting Bengal United.

“I have to pick up the lads now because they are obviously disappointed but we move on,” he said.

“It’s a nice game to go back into, it’s a League Cup game, there’s not much pressure as a league game.”

But Mr Rouse hopes fans that saw their brave effort against Margate yesterday, will return to the Belmont to see his side score a hatfull of goals against a poor Sporting Bengal side that aren’t good enough for this level of football.

He said: “Somebody said to me, we’d be lucky if we’d get 10% of this lot in on Tuesday. No. I don’t think so.

“I think we’ll get a couple of hundred in. The pitch is brilliant under lights, we’ve got spanking new lights, only three years old. They are as good as any Ryman League lights and the pitch glows for a night game.

“We’ve got a noisy, rowdy bunch of supporters sure but they love their football and we think we’ll get 200 - it will be a good game.”

And Seager praised the Oysterboys, adding; “It was a great day for the club and we had great support. They made plenty of noise and drove our players on.”

So it’s back to, what Seager describes as the “bread and butter” on Tuesday night, and Mr Rouse dreams of what could have been, especially as Micky Lane’s shot found the back of the net instead of crashing against the top of the near post nine minutes before Yiga levelled the score for Margate, before Pinnock drove home a dramatic late winner.

He said: “We could and nearly did cause one of the upsets of the day. It would have been lovely to pick up one of the papers and see Whitstable splashed over it and the headline would have been something like “Whitstable in dreamland”.

“But it would have been Whitstable in dreamland, because it would have been fantastic.”