Match Report - WHITSTABLE TOWN 60+ - 16 Nov 2025

In a league where every team is playing well and capable of winning any game, there is no easy matches and this proved to be just that.

The midfields of both teams saw the majority of the possession and the game was to be played out very much in the centre third of the pitch. Both teams took time to settle with some slack passing offering possession back to the opposition. Our marking was tight and we tracked our players well when we were out of possession but we weren't making the most of the pitch with the wide areas not being exploited.

The times we did get the ball wide we looked dangerous and these proved fruitful for us creating chances. Mike was holding the ball up well but the shots we did get away were either blocked or sent high or wide of the target. Steve R, and Rob both got into promising positions to just see their efforts end up in Row Z.

Andy C was introduced to rest Colin as he came back from injury and we started to utilise the area wide on our left. We had a series of free kicks in dangerous positions after Whitstable gave away contact offences and for the ball going high but these also were fruitless.

The half time whistle came with the scores level and as our goal had hardly been threatened, we were probably slightly the better of the two teams. Our talk in the interval was centred around utilising the wide areas more and improving our passing which, at times, had been wayward. We also need to find our shooting boots and start working their keeper more.

We started the second period the brighter and with more purpose. We held our shape better and were moving the ball swifter amongst our midfielders with Steve R and John R both creating half chances that were not converted. We continued to pull Whitstable across the pitch and a move down our right saw the ball played out to John R and then up to Mike. He dropped the ball back to Rob who played the ball square to Andy on our left who was in acres of space yet chose to take the shot first time and sent it back across their keeper, through his legs and into the corner of the net.

With us now having the lead, Whitstable came at us harder. Den, however, marshalled the defensive line well with Rob sitting in front of him disrupting the opposition attacks. We tracked our players but we failed to really create an easy out ball for Steve E and a few of his clearances were easily picked off and gave them some hope of an equaliser.

We were still having opportunities in front of goal and did just about everything rather than score, often taking an extra touch when an early strike may have been possible. With 5 minutes left, Andy took a knock which offered a debut for Paul D in our midfield.

We now realised that we needed to manage the last few minutes out to get the victory. We sat tight with our players and held the ball. We starved Whitstable of possession without really creating anything more going forward and saw the game to a successful conclusion. The game finished Canterbury Mariners 1 - 0 Whitstable Town.

My thanks to all of the team who put the effort in and got the job done. It wasn't our best performance and we can say it was an ugly win but we ground out the victory and secured 3 well earned points.

My particular thanks to Jan and Steve P who were unused substitutes.

My special thanks to those who turned up to support the team and offer their encouragement throughout.

For his control and management in defence, the Player Of The Match was Den.

Paul