Whitstable Town 3-2 Worthing - It really is going to be a dog-fight to the end, says Peter Nott

Tuesday 22nd February 2011

WHITSTABLE TOWN 3-2 WORTHING
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 22nd February 2011
Mike Green reports from Belmont Road

A night of wonderful Ryman League Division One South entertainment on the North Kent coast, which was ultimately won by a moment of genius from Whitstable Town’s top scorer Ian Pulman. Or was it?

Almost 25 years on from Maradona’s wonder goal (the fair one not the “Hand of God”, there are still people who question whether it was the Argentine captain or a Lunging Terry Butcher who actually sent the ball ultimately past Peter Shilton.

Pulman’s winning goal (his 19th of the season) two minutes from time had many of the same hall marks, as the Whitstable striker raced into the box from Lloyd Blackman’s flick, holding off the attention of two defenders, before round keeper Tony Di Bernardo to slip the ball into the net just as defender Ryan Timms made the tackle.

Indeed Timms’ reaction was one of an own goal scorer, but none of the home fans in the 171 crowd were complaining as three more vital points at the bottom of the table now leaves Horsham YMCA adrift and the Oystermen leading the charge (of themselves, Whyteleafe and Corinthian Casuals) to catch the pack immediately above them, which worryingly for Kent football includes Paul Foley’s Chatham Town.

Indeed when asked about the winning goal, Peter Nott the Whitstable boss said, “Pullys claimed the winner and on that performance I’d give it too him all day long. I thought today that we always looked likely to score but I also felt that two goals wasn’t going to be enough today, and luckily enough we got another to win the game.”

Not that the performance pleased the manager as he explained, “The important thing was to get three points tonight, but the performance was way below the levels that I set for the boys.

“I thought that we looked very, very tired – we certainly didn’t win enough second ball and we invited pressure on.

“But that’s been our pattern the last few games now – we get ourselves in front and then we miss two or three really good opportunities to kill the game, and we’ve just got to start being clinical. And we’re way away from that at the moment!

“We’ve just said to the boys in there that we’ve got to realise that we’re in a scrap and when we get our noses in front in a game as we play with two wide players we can’t have the wanting to continually bomb on.

“But that’s what happened today and so at times we need to be a little more professional, tuck into a nice bank of four across the midfield and kill games off.

“And that sadly is what we’re seriously lacking at the moment.”

The game itself was held up by a few minutes, as the visitors had been delayed en route, not that you’d have known that as within the first minute Callum Saunders got in behind the home defence only to be sent sprawling by keeper Shaun Smith.

Referee Mr Andy Mead though, who had an excellent game throughout, was right up with play and waved away the appeals for a Worthing penalty.

Indeed it only emerged after the game that keeper Smith almost didn’t play, as he had to receive treatment for a back spasm ten minutes before kick off and again at half time.

The home side opened the scoring after just five minutes.

Gareth Cornhill was the instigator with a super run and cross down the right and when it fell to Pulman he crashed home his 18th of the season into the roof of the net form the edge of the box.

Given that Worthing had arrived less than half and hour before the scheduled start, Nott knew how vital it was for his side to come roaring out of the traps as he explained, “We set it out that the early goal was so important as they struggled to get here and when they did they didn’t have a proper warm up and we really pressed into the players the need to get stuck in and impress the tempo of the game. And we did and scored, but then we took our foot off the accelerator at the point that we should have pushed on and killed the game.”

It could have been two ten minutes later, but this time Cornhill cutting in from the left chose to shoot over the bar, when perhaps the correct ball would have been square to the unmarked Pulman.

The visitor’s goal then had a lucky escape as John Lansdale missed a bouncing ball allowing Scott Heard to sprint clear. His ball inside for Pulman had “goal” written all over it only for defender Steve Metcalf to produce one of the blocks of the season.

The visitors got into their stride in the closing 15 minutes of the half and could have easily turned their deficit into an advantage at the break.

On 32 minutes Smith produced a fine reflex block with his feet to deny Terry Dodd, but Worthing’s number nine got his revenge five minutes from the break by sweeping the ball into the net (from what looked like an offside position) after a superb ball in from the left. The home defence appealed in vane but the goal stood.

On the strike of half time, it was giant defender Steven Lloyd who was the home hero – timing his tackle on George Gaskin perfectly as the striker (again looking yards offside) broke clear.

It was a spell that worried the Whitstable boss. “We let them back in and then all of a sudden leading up to half time, I just wanted the ref to blow the whistle as there was only one team that was going to go in at half time ahead if it went on long much longer and they not weren’t wearing Whitstable Red,” he said.

“We were able to get them together at half time, and I went absolutely crazy at half time! I think at the moment that we’ve got players here who are too nice – don’t get me wrong, Whitstable is a lovely, lovely club and I’m loving my time here with some lovely people! But we’ve still got too many nice characters in the dressing room and they’ve got to realise the situation we’re in and get us out of it!”

The second half began with the crowd eager for more of the wonderful entertainment that they’d already seen – and they weren’t left disappointed.

On 53 minutes Pulman waltzed his way through the blue wall of Worthing defenders before drawing the foul, leaving the referee with no hesitation but to point to the spot – much to the disgust of the Worthing defenders!

Up stepped skipper Lloyd Blackman to smash the ball home as Di Bernardo dived out of the way!

When asked about the penalty, Nott replied coyly, “It looked a good call from where I was. You know the thing you get with Pully and the way he wriggles his way into the box obviously looking for that, or to score, or to go through. But he was different class for me tonight. Him and Lloyd Blackman were absolutely brilliant up front and were the difference.”

Again Worthing almost equalised straight away, this time when Tim Manton deflected Saunders shot goal wards – Smith had to be at his alert best to bundle the ball round the left post.

Tom Lawley then caught referee Mead in a very forgiving mood with an ugly lunge at Cornhill that left the midfielder in agony on the half way line as for a spell the game threatened to spill over physically rather than verbally which was clear to hear for most of the night.

On 67 minutes Heard was beaten as much by the pitch as the Worthing defence as he raced through and flicked the ball over the keeper only for the ball not to roll as cleanly as it should have allowing a defender to hammer it clear.

Blackman and Pulman then combined again, perhaps playing too much football, as Pulman again took perhaps a touch too many allowing Timms to hack the ball to safety as the ball bobbled towards an unguarded Worthing net, before Di Bernardo produced a fine low save to tip Blackman’s low drive round the post.

Worthing were huffing and puffing and despite having a lot of the ball, their attacks were floundering on a Whitstable wall superbly marshalled by Peter Hawkins and it really was something of surprise when they equalised on 75 minutes.

The home defence couldn’t clear a Dodd shot and the ball looped up into the air and Gaskin accepted the gift heading into the empty net from three yards.

Full credit though to Nott and his side as they showed newly found resilience and were duly rewarded when Pulman (or was it Timms?) bundled the ball home for the 88th minute winner, which his manager acknowledged could prove to be a vital strike in their battle against the drop.

“The results have been much improved but we have drawn too many,” Nott admitted. “We got into a habit of drawing which is obviously better than losing, but when I first arrived I said that we had to establish the sequence or won, lose and draw and we’d be safe come the end of the season. And we’re just about on that now which is just as well because the other teams at the bottom are picking up points too and it really is going to be a dog fight right to the end”.

Whitstable Town: Shaun Smith, Kieron Morris, Gary Sayer (Louis Smith 84), James Peacock, Steven Lloyd, Peter Hawkins, Gareth Cornhill, Ant Bodle (Jim Sherman 66), Lloyd Blackman, Ian Pulman, Scott Heard.

Subs: Adam Douglas, Dan Walker, Danny Williams

Goals: Ian Pulman 5, 88, Lloyd Blackman 53 (pen).

Booked: James Peacock 73, Steven Lloyd 77, Peter Hawkins 90, Ian Pulman 90

Worthing: Tony Di Bernardo, Ryan Timms, Charlie Farmer, John Lansdale, Tony Timms (Luke Gedling 46), Steve Metcalf, Callum Saunders, George Gaskin (Kevin Townsend 82), Terry Dodd, Tom Manton, Tom Lawley.

Subs: Lloyd Skinner, Sean Charles, Ryan Peake

Goals: Terry Dodd 40, George Gaskin 75

Booked: Tony Timms 17, Tom Lawley 58, Luke Gedling 63, John Lansdale 90

Attendance: 171

Referee: Mr Andy Mead (Orpington)

Assistants: Mr Richard Joss (Margate) & Mr Karl May (Gillingham)