One of last season's fellow promotees, Chipstead, still play in green. But Whitstable's new strip (tight shorts apart) made them look more imposing on the pitch and for the first half hour or so, they also looked the more threatening. In fact, there was a general air of confidence about the team in red. Liam Quinn's excellent pre-season appears to have been rewarded with the captaincy. Perona found himself on a strong bench with Seags reverting to a 3-5-2 formation which, if my memory serves me, had been rejected by Simon H as a failed experiment after the friendly against Maidstone. There are two sound reasons for trying it: to prevent last season's haemmorraghing of goals and to utilise the strong centre backs at Whitstable's disposal. But at the moment, it isn't working. It is also difficult to see how that formation will accommodate either GS or Eastwood. It is, of course, entirely possible that both of them were injured for yesterday's game.

Throughout the match, Whitstable's most threatening play came down the right hand side courtesy of Jack Tanner who had an excellent game. Time and again, Chipstead left him in acres of space. The fact that he stuck doggedly to the right hand touch was also strong evidence against the Oystermen's tendency to bunch up prior to Kevin Fewell's kicks. It must surely be clear by now that Whitstable do not win the second ball too often when they're all clogged up on one side of the pitch? But when there is more space between the players, they increase their chances of winning that elusive second ball.

Whitstable's cause was hampered by some dodgy refereeing. A mere 5 minutes into the game, Ian Pulman was clearly fouled just outside the area (although he fell inside it). The referee, who was badly positioned, let the game continue.

On 26 minutes, and it has to be said, against the run of play, Chipstead broke down the right hand side through their impressive Findlay who crossed for Watson to head comfortably into the back of the net as Fewell and one of his defenders got in each other's way. The goal boosted Chipstead who started a series of attacking movements. Liam Quinn made two crucial blocks.

At the other end, Clint Gooding penetrated the Chipstead defence on the right and whipped one in for Ian Pulman who was half a yard too short to make proper contact. And this pattern was repeated as both Jack Tanner and Dave Cory put some great crosses into the six yard box with no-one at the end of it. But in the 44th minute, Dave Cory squared nicely to Jake Gess just inside the area who fired into the bottom right hand corner to continue his impressive goal scoring.

Chipstead came out quickly in the second half forcing Quinn to make yet another important defensive header a minute into the half. Campbell then lost his cool a little as he gave away two unnecessary free-kicks. Fortunately Chipsetad failed to capitalise. On 53 minutes, the Chipstead keeper clearly brought down Ian Pulman inside the 6 yard box and although he claimed he was kicked in the head, the picture shows an obvious rugby tackle. What did the ref so? He gave Ian Pulman a yellow card presumably for simulation. A terrible decision.

Tom Parker who had an energetic game at defensive midfield then broke through on a couple of occasions with some impressive dribbling, but his final cross left a little to be desired. Danny Tipple who seemed to be playing at left midfield was surprisingly quiet in his new role, but this could have had something to do with the fact that the Chipstead right back was both quick and an excellent tackler and therefore kept him quiet. And when Tipple finally did zoom down the left on 71 and 72 minutes, both his crosses went way out.

At the back, Liam Quinn continued to discharge his impressive defensive duties and Paul Ainsworth made a wonderful last ditch tackle on 76 minutes. But with 13 minutes to go, Quintyne, the Chipstead substitute, dribbled the ball from the left hand side, past 3 or 4 Whitstable players to the centre and - encouraged by the watching fans to shoot - duly delivered and banged the ball from distance into the bottom left hand corner.

Five minutes later, the Oysterboys bore witness to internal divisions as the Whitstable players started arguing with each other. Not a professional sight it has to be said. But this did lead to three more attacks by the Oystermen punctuated by a Chipstead claim for a penalty. Cory crossed only for Pullie to head over 7 minutes from time. 4 minutes later, Danny Tipple put Pullie through but he shot just wide and the final action of the game was a good Jake Tanner cross which went just ahead of Dave Cory who failed to connect.

In short, it was a game of missed opportunities and the common theme was a failure by the Whitstable front line to be in the right place at the right time. There were some dangerous crosses particularly from the right, but the strikers were about a yard off on nearly every occasion. With the pace of Pullie and Cory, this should be capable of remedy. I left the game feeling disappointed but on reflection, there were plenty of positives. There is still the tendency to give the ball away too cheaply, but this is improving. There is also the tendency to lose shape in the middle of the park and as is often the case, it was difficult to work out who was supposed to be playing what position in the middle. Total football is a great concept, but Holland we are not! The two best players for me were also the two who stuck doggedly to their positions: Jack Tanner and Liam Quinn. Tom Parker also came close. And there is a lesson in that.

Oysterman of the match, by a whisker, Jack Tanner.