Isthmian League

Division 1 South East

Wednesday 1st January 2020

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Herne Bay 3 Whitstable Town 0, attendance 831 (official)

4’ 1-0

27’ 2-0 (pen)

61’ 3-0

@ Winch’s Field

Stanley Gardens

Herne Bay

CT6 5SG

£10 Admission

£2 Programme, 32 pages.

Each year it becomes harder to get in a game at an unvisited ground on New Year’s Day, as very few leagues bother to play on this day anymore. Of the few that do, they tend to be leagues where floodlights are a requirement, so any new grounds that do appear, have already been visited for a midweek fixture before the turn of the year.

At least it gives the chance to revisit a ground with reasonable facilities, rather than standing in a field like most other weeks, and be part of one of the home clubs biggest crowds of the season, which was certainly the case here. I had last been to Herne Bay on 13th August 2005, when I saw them beat Sevenoaks Town 3-0 in a Kent League match, in front of 105 spectators. The club had tweeted that they were hoping to beat the 730 record crowd for this fixture in recent times, and perhaps even top the 1,000 mark. They comfortably beat the record, but were well short of the four figure target, and in truth, the crowd only looked to be around 600 really, although I never did an actual ‘head count’. At least after this money spinner they can afford to replace the non working bulbs in the floodlights. All four corner pylons had one of the three bulbs out, with one corner only having one bulb working. If that one had gone out, then there may have been a problem finishing the match, as the lighting was really poor and well below the standard you would expect at Step 4 football.

As a neutral, the game got off to the worst possible start, as Herne Bay scored in the opening five minutes, with an angled shot into the far corner of the net. I always think these sort of matches need the away team to go in front and open the game up. Anyway, Herne Bay made it 2-0 from the penalty spot, through top scorer Zak Ansah, following a foul just inside the box and that was pretty much game over. Whitstable did have a number of good chances, but wasted them all. If just one of them had gone in, it could have been so different. The second half was more of the same, with Tushaun-Tyreese Walters scoring his second goal of the match, this time scoring from the opposite corner of the box and into the top corner of the net, to round off the scoring just after the hour mark.