We’re not on our way to Wembley…

Whitstable Town 5 Newhaven 0, FA Cup Preliminary Round, Saturday 22^nd August 2026

The road to Wembley is officially shut. Well, for us it is, anyway.

Not that it was ever really open following last week’s FA Vase defeat against Guernsey. But one can always dream.

The Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, saw us make the lengthy journey to Whitstable Town in Kent. A side who not only play at a higher level, but one that has actually successfully traversed the long and winding road to Wembley. And even conquered it. They won the FA Vase a couple of seasons ago.

As ever, a long journey brought with it what has become the customary annual coach trip. A trip that, this year, I was unfortunately unable to make due to a post-game engagement. Well, I say unfortunately. Given that the coach left Fort Road at 10:30, and didn’t actually arrive at the ground until just gone 14:00 (due to a closure on the M20), maybe being forced to miss the coach trip this year wasn’t such a bad thing.

The team’s late arrival to the game brought with it a slightly delayed kick-off.

Not that this extra preparation time ultimately did us much good.

With a number of key players out injured, this was always going to be a huge test for an inexperienced squad. And so it proved.

Although Lee Robinson had an early sighter at goal which went over, from the outset Whitstable to a man just looked that extra bit stronger and faster. Basically, they looked like a team that plays at a higher level.

It took our hosts just five minutes to make their superiority count.

A low cross from the right was neatly finished off at the back post by Robbie Rees.

Ten minutes later, the lead was doubled. It was a similar goal, with another low cross (this time from the left) being swept home first-time by Jack Nelson.

Things soon went from bad to worse, as Newhaven’s injury-plagued squad was further weakened as Lee Robinson limped off.

However, by now Newhaven were finally starting to settle and grow into the game. On the half-hour mark, the Dockers finally produced their first effort on target courtesy of Ezra Roeg, although his shot was no more than routine for their keeper to deal with.

A couple of minutes later, we went the closest we would go to getting on the scoresheet: Rudy Jones’s sweetly struck free-kick missing the target by mere inches.

Five minutes before the break, Fraser Trigwell made a decent stop to keep Whitstable’s lead to just two. There was a growing feeling that if we could get to half-time only two goals behind, then maybe, just maybe, we still had a chance.

You can all guess what happened next.

That’s right. Just moments before the interval, Whitstable scored a third.

Yet again it came from a low cross and a first-time finish, but this was the best of the three, with Nelson emphatically finishing into the top corner to all-but end the game as a contest.

Newhaven actually started the second-half on the front foot, dominating territory for the first time in the match.

Again, you can all guess what happened next.

From their first attack of the half, Rees took full advantage of some defensive hesitancy to loft the ball over Trigwell and extend Whitstable’s lead to four.

With the best part of forty minutes still to play, a long, arduous second-half seemed to lay ahead.

To their credit, though, the Dockers didn’t lye down. Two decent Ash Wadhams’ crosses almost gave us a consolation; Dexter Lambert forcing the home goalkeeper into a save with the first one, and just unable to get his toe on the second.

Whitstable, though, continued to push for goals. They’d already hit the post by the time Henry Young scored what was to be the final goal in the 65^th minute.

The remainder of the match passed by with very little incident, as a flurry of subs from both teams ended any lingering flow the game had to it.

Come full-time there was little doubt the Dockers had been well beaten by a better side. I’m sure there will be some frustrations given the manner in which some of the goals were conceded, but the truth is we never really looked likely to cause an upset.

Post game, there was a little bit of drama as a very proud nine-toed Whitstable supporter seemed to take it upon himself to pick a fight with a couple of our (female) supporters, but this was thankfully swiftly dealt with.

All that remained was the coach trip home, which I’m assured was rather smoother (and a great deal louder) than the journey to the ground had been.

We don’t have to wait long until we have a chance to bounce back from this defeat, as we host AFC Varndeanians in the Second Round of the Peter Bently Cup on Tuesday evening (19:45 kick-off).

Let’s hope we have a few more players back for this one!

This is the first in a run of three home games in a week, as we then host Horsham YM on Saturday, before welcoming (my) title favourites Haywards Heath to Fort Road on Bank Holiday Monday (11am kick-off). Both of these are league games.

That will take it to a staggering nine games in the opening month of the season! Busy. Here’s hoping we can end August with a bang.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Ryan Blunt. Never stopped working or looking to get on the ball. Easily our best player on display (in my opinion).

While I’ve got your attention, if you’re off on holiday and fancy a summer read (or just enjoy
reading), please check out my debut adult (crime fiction) novel, Snapped (available to download on Kindle). Thank you.