Whitstable Town 1-0 Merstham - Three points today were off great reward, admits Peter Nott

Saturday 12th February 2011

WHITSTABLE TOWN 1-0 MERSTHAM
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 12th February 2011
Mike Green reports from Belmont Road

A wonder goal from Gareth Cornhill with literally the last kick of the game has moved Whitstable Town out of the Ryman League Division One South relegation zone.

19-year-old Cornhill’s strike (“officially” timed at 92:38) was as good a goal to win any game as the young wingers drive swerved away from six foot nine inch Merstham keeper Rob O’Hara before nestling in the corner of the net.

Sadly the goal was the only moment to remember from a poor game where the heavy Belmont pitch took its toll on both sides.

But Peter Nott’s Oystermen must be complimented in their persistence for as time went and the second half ebbed past, there was only one side looking for the three points.

Speaking afterwards Nott admitted, “We needed those three points desperately after dropping into the bottom two in midweek for the first time in a while. But you try to put that out of your mind but its still there. We needed the three points today, because although we’ve been picking points up, they have only been points as we’ve possibly drawn too many, and we’ve got to look to change that mentality in the players that a point is enough.

“We’ve come a long way recently – its all been about not losing and keeping clean sheets – now we’ve got to take it to the next stage of winning games. So the three points today were of great reward!”

Nott added: “It was a cracking goal that won us the game – Gareth’s got that in him. He’s a very versatile player who I think could go a long way in the game, as he’s still not 20. We had a bit of a problem over on the left hand side so we had to drag him over from his favoured position on the right but by doing so we knew we’d sacrifice something. But then in the last 10 to 15 minutes when we knew we really had to push on, we put him back on the right and he’s scorer an absolute screamer that no even their giant of a keeper could keep out – you really don’t stop them!

“The main thing we’ve done since we’ve been here is to start changing the mind sets where a point is good enough. I’ve said to the board in the week that I’d think we’ve stopped the rot – there’s no doubt about that now that we’re on the back of a decent run (this result means that the Oystermen have lost just once in their last ten games) – I’m sure we’ve become more positive and whilst it has been about not losing until today.

“I looked at Merstham and knew they would be out to impress as they had a new manager last weekend, which always seems to give a club a lift, but we’ve drawn more games than anyone else in the League and when I looked at today we had to take three points today (as they’ve lost five out of their last seven) even if we did leave it very, very late!”

And how thankful were the home faithful for Cornhill’s wonder strike as all they had to talk about as they filed out of the ground would have been half chances and wasted opportunities from both sides.

Skipper Lloyd Blackman was the first “culprit” for the home side as the ball got stuck between his feet as he tried a 12th minute shot and the ball bobbled through to O’Hara.

You could tell is wasn’t going to be a good day when on 14 minutes, Shaun Smith in the home goal produced a wonder save to tip over Dale Marvell’s 25 yard free kick only for referee Kane to award a goal kick – although he did change his mind after consulting an assistant!

Ian Pulman then joined the wasteful list as after sprinting clear of the defence and with Blackman rapidly making ground, Pulman was caught in two minds whether to shoot or pass and the chance was gone.

With 10 minutes left in the half, the Oystermen had a lucky escape as Anthony Myers got free on the edge of the box and fired in a low drive that wrong footed Smith only to thud against the outside of the keepers right post.

The second half wasn’t a good advert for Ryman League football as both sides failed miserably with the final ball and neither keeper had a save to make worthy of the name.

Indeed you felt that when Dan Wisker hit the ball out of the ground from just outside the six-yard box on 58 minutes that it really was going to be one of those days.

Thank heaven then for Cornhill. Deep into stoppage time, he cut in from the left leaving three defenders in his wake before drilling home his sixth goal of the season from 20 yards to spark scenes of joy and excitement that sixty seconds earlier had been doom and gloom!

Merstham barely had time for the restart before referee Kane’s final whistle, and the Oystermen for now had moved out of the division’s bottom two!

Despite their lowly position the manager was adamant that a solitary point wouldn’t have been good enough from the afternoon’s work.

He said: “There’s no way that we could have settled for a point today – we had to win. We had to get three points as we’ve taken too many single points – just look what happened midweek! A couple of sides at the bottom won unexpectedly and crash – we’re back in the bottom two!

“When I came here I looked at a safe points total and I said that a “win loss draw” sequence of games would see us through. In the last three games we’ve drawn all three and we knew that we were behind on the points required. Now with these three points we’re back on track, and now we’ve got a tough game at Bognor on Tuesday, but I’ve got every confidence that we can go there and get a result as well!

“I would hope that we can be sitting here in a few weeks times having left the bottom behind us as we’ve left the bottom behind us as we’ve brought some quality to the club which is hard to do when you’re working on a tight budget.

“But I respect the budget that we’ve got and took the job on that basis, and we’ve managed to bring players down here who have played at a lot higher level, and to be honest, they’re playing because hopefully they want to play for me and the club to more importantly re establish themselves again.

“That’s what we need as we’ve got a good bunch of boys here, maybe a little bit laps a dazical which we’ve got to get out of them. They got a rocket today at half time, and again at full time even though they all came in singing and shouting because we scored right at the death, we brought them down and told them upfront that if we play like that on Tuesday, we’ll get nothing from the game.

“I’ve told them to go and enjoy tonight, but think about their own performances as there were five or six that simply weren’t good enough!”

Whitstable Town: Shaun Smith, Louis Smith, Steven Lloyd, Dan Wisker (Tom Parker 73), James Peacock, Peter Hawkins, Gareth Cornhill, Any Bodle, Lloyd Blackman (Dan Williams 73), Ian Pulman, Scott Heard.

Subs: Jim Sherman, Kieran Morris, Adam Douglas.

Goal: Gareth Cornhill 90

Merstham: Rob O’Hara, Fabio Saravia, Troy Ferguson (David Smith 69), Bradley Duke, Steve Rollinson, Adam Moriarty, Dale Marvell, Tiago Andrade (Michael Corbett 56), Ross White, Anthony Myers (Ryan Watts 77).

Subs: Craig Vernon, Ian Chatfield

Booked: Colin Harvey 66, Dale Marvell 84, Michael Corbett 89

Attendance: 194

Referee: Mr Graham Kane (Ditchling, East Sussex)

Assistants: Mr James Slaney (Brighton, East Sussex) and Mr Kevin Roberts (Eastbourne, East Sussex)