Whitstable Town 0-2 Deal Town - There will be a point where we'll turn it around, says Whitstable Town boss Marcel Nimani

Whitstable Town 0 – 2 Deal Town
Location	The Belmont, Belmont Road, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1QP
Kickoff	10/12/2022 15:00

WHITSTABLE TOWN  0-2  DEAL TOWN
Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 10 December 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Belmont Road

WHITSTABLE TOWN manager Marcel Nimani insists he will turn around his side’s home form after clinical Deal Town became the seventh side to win on the artificial turf at Belmont Road this season.

Wide striker Riley Alford and holding midfielder Billy Munday both scored their sixth goals of the season as Deal Town climbed four places into fifth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table with 27 points from 16 games.

Nimani has been in charge of Whitstable Town for nine games, winning four and losing four and the former Sheppey United assistant manager and quadruple winner last season cut a frustrated figure during the post-match press conference, held in the warmth of the physio room inside the home dressing room, on another bitterly cold day.

“Frustrating, disappointing but at the same time encouraging,” said Nimani.

“There are things that we are working on in the training sessions you see in the game but ultimately at both ends of the pitch we need to improve better.

“It’s a mistake at the back that leads to them scoring and we broke into their final third 11 times in 45 minutes and we just couldn’t score so ultimately cutting mistakes at the back remains our biggest issue.”

Deal Town boss Steve King said: “Really pleased with the performance.  It was an important win for us. We’ve had a good few weeks but mainly in cup competitions. We’ve only won one in six in the league before this and without playing for a couple of weeks, we’ve dropped to ninth and we needed to get three points on the board.

“Coming here is always difficult, they’re a good side, a quality side so I’m delighted with the result, really pleased with the performance.”

King added: “I pride myself on clean sheets so it’s probably the most pleasing thing for me. 

“I thought we had 110% effort from everybody. We worked our absolute socks off and we didn’t carry anybody and I thought we showed some quality on the ball.  At times we were a little bit sloppy but we changed the way we played slightly, especially when we play on 3G pitches.  We made a conscience decision in the last month or so to change the way we play and I thought the boys implemented it well.

“I thought the first goal was a brilliant goal, a team goal and the second one was a great strike so it was a great day for us.”

Whitstable Town have now lost seven of their nine home league games but they created their first opening after only 31 seconds.

A throw-in from left-back George Sheminant released striker Dean Grant, who held off Alfie Foster and cut into the Deal Town penalty area before drilling his shot into the base of the side-netting from a very tight angle.

Deal Town were guilty of a glaring miss inside the opening 13 minutes following a set-piece.

Left-back Jack Penny swung in a free-kick from the right-wing, Tom Chapman flicked the ball on at the near post and Munday hooked the ball past the right-hand post from a couple of yards out.

“We’re not quite sure how he missed that,” admitted King, whose side are now unbeaten in three games in league and cup.

“I’ll have to watch it on the Veo but it was a great ball. I’m not giving away any secrets when I say we do a lot of work on set-pieces and the delivery was great, the runs were great and I thought we should’ve scored if I’m being honest.”

Deal Town opened the scoring with 16 minutes and 27 seconds on the clock, much to the delight of the travelling fans in the 486 crowd.

Holding midfielder Macauley Murray pinged a diagonal pass from inside his own half over to Penny on the left wing and he cut the ball onto his right-foot to whip in a cross towards the near post.

Whitstable Town centre-half Sam Fitzgerald failed to close down Alford, who was in space eight-yards from goal and the former Hythe Town striker flicked his shot past Dan Eason into the near corner.

“A great goal. I think we made 10-15 passes before we got the ball to Macca actually,” said King.

“We worked it and got Penny nice and wide. It’s a brilliant diagonal pass from Macca, a great cross and Riley, a poachers finish, getting in at the near post. It was an important goal for us.  The first goal was always going to be big today.”

Nimani added: “That goal, players need to take accountability.  They need to watch the Veo and sometimes senior players need to look and realise themselves it can’t be the management team constantly keep going at them.

“It’s a goal scored based on an individual error, rather than merit to the opposition.”

Whitstable Town produced a well-worked move and called visiting goalkeeper Henry Newcombe into making a comfortable save in the 20^th minute.

Long-serving right-back Jake MacKenzie released debutant winger Rodney Eruotor down the right and he played the ball inside to Grant in the middle.

Harry Gamble’s square pass was dummied by Liam Gillies and winger Barnes stroked a low first-time drive towards goal from 18-yards, which Newcombe held smothering the ball low to his left.

Nimani said: “We’re creating plenty of chances and we’re not finishing our chances.

“Gus had a fantastic opportunity there, drove the ball up the pitch. It was a good build-up and got himself in a great shooting position and it was disappointing in the way the skill that he choose to execute that moment.

“I think it should’ve been hit harder, higher in the top corner and he had every time in the world to finish that and he should’ve done better.”

King added: “I thought Harry was brilliant today.  He made good saves when he had to. He defended his box really well. His distribution was good.

“A quality side like that are going to create chances across 90 minutes, of course they are, but I thought we sort of contained them in areas where we wanted them to be in and I don’t think Harry made any absolute worldies.

“I think most of the stuff he had to do is what you expect him to do but he did it very well.”

Deal Town swiftly went up the other end and created an opening just 27 seconds later.

Penny’s diagonal came in from the left, Tom Chapman laid the ball inside for Munday, whose first-time drive from 20-yards flashed across Eason and just past the far post.

Whitstable Town produced a sweeping move and were to be denied by Newcombe’s legs in the 26^th minute.

Gamble played the ball in from the left to Grant in the middle, who played the ball on his outside to Eruotor.  The right-winger skipped past Penny on his outside and drilled a right-footed shot towards the bottom near corner from eight-yards, only to be denied by the former Hythe Town stopper.

Nimani said: “Disappointed with the end product.  Fantastic build-up play, that was throughout the game. We worked on going toe-to-toe with Deal Town. I felt that we did and the final product there let us down.”

When asked about Grant’s 37^th minute substitution, Nimani added: “He had a bit of a clash with another player and he looked a little bit out of shape and we felt to be safe we’ll bring in James Jeffrey.”

King added: “We knew the two wingers would be threats.  They’ve signed Eruotor for today.  I saw a bit of him in pre-season.  I know he did well at (Isthmian League Premier Division side) Herne Bay in pre-season and he was at Sheppey, so we knew he was going to be a threat but I thought Jack Penny dealt with him well.

“If you’re going to be playing against quality wingers you’re not going to go through 90 minutes without them having a chance but I thought we forced them to shoot from wide areas and Harry was there when we needed him.”

Deal Town centre-half Alex Green exchanged a one-two with Penny inside the Whitstable Town half before floating in a cross.  Reiss Chandler gave the ball away in midfield and an unmarked Munday cracked a right-footed drive screaming past the far post from 35-yards.

Deal Town then hit Whitstable Town on the counter-attack with the impressive Penny switching play from left-to-right to Alford, who laid the ball inside to Tom Chapman, who drilled a first-time shot past the far post from 25-yards.

King added: “They were both good shots to be fair. I was behind both of them and I think if they’re both on target, I think they’re going in.”

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the interval.

Nimani said: “The first half performance was very pleasing. We were very satisfied with the first half performance.   The players’ executed the plan.

“We wanted to go toe-to-toe with Deal Town. We wanted to hit them on the counter. We wanted to drive at them.  We wanted to keep passion. We wanted to pin them in their area and we wanted to deal with their long balls. I felt we dealt with their long balls very well. We defended well.  I felt in possession we were a lot better and we drove at them.

“But ultimately we didn’t finish the chances so the conversation was all about maintaining it and doing it for 90 minutes.”

King added: “I wanted us to be a little bit braver and make sure we concentrated and make sure that we got on the front foot and just keep going really. I thought the boys did that. I thought we were very good in the second half.”

Whitstable Town created the first opening of the second half, 14 minutes in.

Chandler played the ball out to substitute James Jeffrey, who ignored MacKenzie on the overlap, and went for goal himself, only for his driven shot to take a deflection before Newcombe grabbed the ball at his near post.

Gillies released Eruotor down the right and his left-footed shot from just outside the corner of the six-yard box was held by Newcombe, low to his left.

“Rodney did really well. You can see he hasn’t got 90 minutes in him yet, so perhaps had the game been different we (would’ve replaced him) in the 70^th minute, that’s the most he had but he had a good debut for us. He’s definitely got the attributes that we wanted in a winger. It looks encouraging so we’ll look to build him up.”

Deal Town grabbed the decisive second goal with 18 minutes and 29 seconds on the clock.

Striker Aaron Millbank swept the ball out to Ben Chapman down the left and his effort was charged down and the ball came out to an unmarked Munday, who drilled a first-time right-footed drive nestling inside the bottom left-hand corner from 35-yards, leaving Eason rooted to the spot.

“We wanted to get shots away today. It was part of our game plan. We saw that from the second goal from Billy Munday,” said King.

“We encourage the boys to get shots away from outside of the edge of the box.  It's different when you’re playing on a 3G pitch, you can get a decent strike and that was a part of the plan but it came off perfectly in the second half for us.

“It was a great strike, Bill’s got that in his locker.  He’s been excellent for us Bill. I thought he was very good today and very pleased.

“Bill’s done great for us, he’s been with us, what, four or five years now.  We keep working with him, we keep improving him but he’s a great lad and a very good player.”

Nimani revealed his side being punished from long distance is a usual occurrence.
 
“It keeps happening against us.  Every game at home we keep conceding goals from 35 yards and we need to start looking at how we’re dealing with that in the centre, that other teams are getting so much space in the centre to score long distance goals against us.”

Sheminant swung in a corner from the right in the 68^th minute, which Newcombe back-peddled to flick the ball onto the top of his crossbar and dropped behind for the fifth and final corner from the home side.

Deal Town suffered the same fate inside the final 12 minutes when Penny counter-attacked down the left and fed substitute striker Connor Coyne and Penny’s left-footed curler from within the left-channel clipped the far post.

King said: “He’s unlucky, he’s got great quality Pen. It would’ve been nice to have got a third, just to kill it off but it wasn’t to be.”

Nimani added: “It was just expected after we went 2-0 down, we had to be brave and we had to take risks and we went all out with all guns blazing and it became easier for them to counter-attack us.

“I think it was a cross rather than a shot, wasn’t it?  He crossed from quite an awkward angle and he must’ve hit it awkwardly and it just happened to hit the post.”

Whitstable Town missed a glorious chance to pull a goal back when Alford gave the ball away to substitute left-winger Michael Uwezu, who played a low through ball to striker Jeffrey, who swept his left-footed shot past the far post from 12-yards when he only had Newcombe to beat.

“Michael put a fantastic ball through for James and James did really well for us,” said Nimani.

“He was in the box and I was quite surprised to see him miss the target inside the box, one-v-one.  The least he should’ve done was make the keeper save the chance.”

Deal Town’s right-winger Tom Chapman cut inside Victor Aiyelabola down the right and his left-footed drive from 25-yards was heading towards the bottom far corner before Eason held the ball low to his right.

King added: “Tom was a threat all afternoon wasn’t he and did very well.”

Whitstable Town lost substitute Jordan Wells to a straight red-card inside stoppage time for a lunge on Penny and the midfielder, who arrived at the club when Richard Styles brought him in from Tunbridge Wells, is expected to miss three games for violent conduct.

Nimani said: “I’ve been doing this for quite a long time. I do refereeing myself, being a school teacher, I know what it’s like being a ref.

“It takes a lot for me to criticise the referee but these referees just seem to be against (us), maybe we’re losing and it feels like it.

“Every home game I’ve had, decisions have been so awful. It was just horrendous. It didn’t impact the game much. I’m not going to use the red card as a scapegoat but it effects the young lad who has been out for a month.  It’s his first game this season after an injury and now he’s going to be out for three games and it’s not fair on him because it wasn’t a red card.  I didn’t think it was a foul if I’m honest with you.”  

King added: “I didn’t have a great view of it to be honest, there was a lot of bodies (in my way).  I think he’s lunged. I think the emotions are high late in the game. I’m sure they’ll have a look at the Veo and if they think the ref’s got it wrong, then they’ll be able to appeal it but it did look like a bit of a lunge for me.  I was actually preparing another sub so I didn’t really have a great view of it so not much comment on that.”

Nimani insists his side will turn around the club’s home form around, especially after this was their third successive home league defeat but they have won seven of their 10 league games on the road.

“No, it’s not concerning, it’s encouraging and I’ll tell you why it’s encouraging. There will be a point where we’ll turn it around and when we do turn it around then we’ll look to maintain our away form and when the two come together, the season isn’t over yet, the project has just begun.

“There will be a point when we do turn it around and there will be a point when we maintain away and then we’ll reach the objectives of what we’ve come here to do, so it’s not worrying, it’s encouraging and we will turn it around.”

This was only five games in the division due to the cold snap and Erith & Belvedere are now 20 points clear of Stansfeld following their 2-0 away win in the top-of-the-table clash at Foxbury Avenue.

Deal Town are 23 points adrift of the leaders but only three points adrift of Stansfeld, while relegated Whitstable Town are languishing in ninth-place in the table with 25 points from 19 games.

Nimani takes his side to eleventh-placed Lordswood (23 points from 18 games), while bottom five side K Sports (19 points from as many games) head to Deal Town next Saturday.

Lordswood came away from K Sports with a 3-2 win this afternoon.

Nimani said: “Another challenging game, challenging for many fronts. It’s a challenging side and they liked to scrap and we’ll have to compete against a side in a field that suits their style so we’re going to prepare for that and we need to get our chests up and perform like we did today.”

King said: “We’re a little bit disappointed with our total because we’ve dropped really silly ones.

“I said to the boys before the game that last year I think we were in fourth-place at this point and we were 12 points off second.  We’ve started today ninth and we’re six points off second so in a way we were in a better position before the game.

“We’ve got the win, three of our next four games are at home and our home form has been good, so if we can string another two or three wins together I think we’ll be back in and around that promotion hunt.

“Stansfeld have done very well and Erith Town but no one’s really strung that run of results together to get away from everyone and I think it’s going to make it an exciting second half of the season.”

King added: “K Sports is always a tough game. They’re lively, got some good players, lots of pace. We lost there in the league so we won’t be taking them lightly but our home form is good and we should have a decent crowd in and hopefully we go and perform and get a result.”

Nimani, meanwhile, says he has settled in well at Belmont Road.

“It’s fine, it’s exactly what we expected. It’s a fantastic club, run by great people and they’ve been extremely supportive.

“The fan base are brilliant and it’s just heart-breaking because we want to give these fans what they deserve and we’re not quite there yet – we will get there.

“We’ve just hit the halfway mark.  We’ll look at address the home form and look to maintain our away form and we’ll look to get a good run of games and results together and then once we do that, that’s our first ambition, we can look what we add in.

“It’s a two-year project and if we have to use this year as a trial for better for next year then sobeit but we’re still very ambitious for this year, especially as we’ve still got one cup left.”

Whitstable Town: Dan Eason, Jake MacKenzie, George Sheminant, Reiss Chandler (Jordan Wells 65), Sam Fitzgerald (Michael Uwezu 68), Tom Mills, Gus Barnes (Victor Aiyelabola 74), Liam Gillies (Caoilte Deakin 86), Dean Grant (James Jeffrey 37), Harry Gamble, Rodney Eruotor.

Booked: Liam Gillies 12, Gus Barnes 22, James Jeffrey 69, Tom Mills 83

Sent Off: Jordan Wells 90

Deal Town: Henry Newcombe, Joe Reeves (Liam Hark 71), Jack Penny, Billy Munday, Alex Green, Alfie Foster, Riley Alford (Alex Smith 84), Macauley Murray, Aaron Millbank (Connor Coyne 67), Ben Chapman, Tom Chapman.
Subs: Lewis Stevens-Toomey, Dean James

Goals: Riley Alford 17, Billy Munday 64

Booked: Billy Munday 90

Attendance: 486
Referee: Mr Kehinde Agboola
Assistants: Mr Jack Mottram & Mr Michael Skerratt