To coin the aphorism: she’s a cruel mistress. The Oystermen were undone by a goal in the 92nd minute as Dulwich returned to London with all three points and a 1-0 victory. On the balance of play, especially in the second half, it was an undeserved victory for the visitors – but you got the sense that the hosts would have been happy with a 0-0 draw in the last twenty minutes despite their sporadic yet incisive attacks. That said, the final quarter was testament to an exciting game of football as well as a heart-wrenching result that leaves Whitstable in the bottom two.

 

The first half was pretty scrappy and not helped by some over-fussy refereeing: a particular highlight being the yellow card to Hamlet’s left back for petulantly throwing the ball to the ground when a decision went against him (the referee failed to yellow a second Hamlet player for doing exactly the same thing in the second half. He also missed a number of penalty shouts).

 

Despite some neat attacking play, especially down the right hand side, there was no final product from Whitstable. It was always going to be difficult to get past Hamlet’s enormous captain at centre back and their even taller keeper. Equally, sloppy passing straight to the opposition did not help Whitstable’s cause - with Monkur being particularly culpable. TJ went off with an injury after about 20 minutes and was replaced by Jim Sherman, returning from suspension after his red card against Met Police. Sherman didn’t do much in the first half, but what he did do was an improvement on Monkur’s contribution.

 

Yianni was a little off-colour in the first half despite shining against Faversham earlier in the week, and it took a long time before Whitstable started using small triangular passing to get the ball forward. This was especially effective between Louis Smith (who was excellent in the first half), Cornhill, Yianni and occasionally Wisker.

 

On the balance of play, Whitstable just edged the first half, but it wasn’t much of a spectacle.

 

The second half was actually pretty exciting. It was end to end stuff with both sides forging good chances. Lloyd Blackman should have scored when one-on-one with the kepper, and came close a little later only for his shot to cannon off the keeper and up into the air following some decent pressure from the Hamlet captain.

 

Young Scott Heard looked tired after putting in yet another hard working shift, and he probably should have been subbed instead of Wisker (resulting in Yianni moving into the centre of the park and Morris taking up the berth at right midfield: had I made that change, I probably would have put Morris at right back and Cornhill at right midfield).

 

There were a number of defensive highlights: Pullie tracking back and dispossessing a Dulwich player, and an astonishing goal-line clearance from Steven Lloyd followed by him throwing himself in front of a cannon of a shot from just outside the area (by then, Louis Smith had already secured the Man of the Match award although Lloyd’s performance in the final few minutes probably just shaded that of Smith). The manager will now have a real headache for his next selection because Douglas has also been extremely impressive in recent games at centre back and it’s difficult to know what the best combination at the back is. The fairest thing to do would be to let both Smith and Lloyd keep their shirts until one of them has a bad game. And Douglas can, of course, play at right back too, which would allow Cornhill to move forward again to right midfield with Yianni either shifting into the centre of the park as an attacking midfielder or onto the left flank. Scott Heard has put in some really hard-working performances, but they have also taken their toll on him and he looks like he needs a rest.

 

Vahid came on too late to make a difference. Yes, he did it a couple of games ago, but it’s not going to happen twice in short succession. Watching him at half time, he was slotting the balls into the net for fun, and I think he is hungry for games and goals. He was also smiling. Although Blackman is great at winning the ball, holding it up, and finding space, on yesterday’s performance, I also think I would have subbed him for Vahid instead of Pullie, and much earlier. Oh well, I’m not the manager, and clearly have no idea!

 

The Dulwich goal was route one to their lone striker who ran straight down the middle between the two best players on the night (Smith and Lloyd) only to score comfortably past Fewell (who yet again had put in some fantastic saves). With two of the three minutes of injury time gone, it was too late to salvage anything, and it was a cruel blow. But Dulwich took their chances, and we didn’t, and that’s why they won.

 

A difficult series of games are coming up, but if the Oystermen can take some of the positives with them (and cut out the sloppy passing) then some points will be possible. The squad is too good to be where it currently finds itself. But it’s going to be a tough few weeks.