On a bobbly pitch, manfully cleared by the committee for the occasion, Whitstable finally secured all three points at home against a surprisingly lacklustre Ramsgate side. What is more, the victory was deserved. The Oystermen could have won by more but for some heroic goalkeeping by the visitors' stopper. Ramsgate's captain (and Whitstable's former captain and favourite, Liam Quinn) also ensured that the scoreline remained more respectable for the Rams.

Caretaker manager Steve Nolan picked a slightly different-looking side: Cornhill was back in a slightly more comfortable-looking right back position although his first touch let him down on a number of occasions in the first half; GS was at left back and they book-ended Adam Douglas and Louis Smith at centre half. The whole back line had a solid game and GS made some very threatening runs from the back that caused Ramsgate problems. It's good to see GS returning to good form after his recent absence. There was a completely new central midfield pairing of TJ Monkur and Ant Bodle with Scott Heard and Mike Yianni patrolling the wings (occasionally swapping sides). Up front Pulman and Blackman continued their growing relationship.

Blackman won a (slightly soft) penalty which Pulman failed to convert after a poor penalty bounced off the keeper who also managed to keep out the rebound on 23 minutes. But a few minutes later the bar denied Pulman what would have been a spectacular looped goal. The Ramsgate keeper also managed to push certain goals out in quick succession on the half hour mark. At the other end, Fewell managed to keep out a goalward-bound ball with his trailing foot to equal his opposite number's heroics.

The sides went in at half time more or less sharing the spoils and 0-0 was a fair reflection of the game so far.

In the second half, Scott Heard made most of the attacking play helped out by GS. It was difficult for the front men to break through the Ramsgate back line as Quinn was outstanding. He somehow managed to keep both Pullie and Blackman quiet. Wisker's introduction at the expense of Monkur raised the attacking aspects a little, but Wisker was hit and miss. 

It fell to Stuart Vahid to wrap up the points having been given about five minutes to do so. It was felt that his introduction was on the late side, but perhaps realising that he did not have much time to change anything, Vahid showed his instinct for goal by following up and scoring from a few yards in the second minute of extra time. He actually deserved his goal for the five minute shift he had put in before then.

Whoever the manager will be, he now has a real luxury problem up front.

You Reds!