Ten Men 2 - 1 Eleven Men

It was a big day on the north kent coast today. Kirsty and Phil fled the town as Chatham visited desperate for a win with a chance to save their season. Whitstable vs Chatham, one vital league place and three points between them, with ninety minutes to settle it. Whitstable, a great club in the most non patronising sense, fielded two players close to my own heart in Jermaine Darlington, now with the pepper pot hair of a man in his late 30s, and Peter Hawkins. Both were members of the last Wimbledon side I watched in 2001. Both still showed a class well beyond the Ryman League in this match. You'd have thought a 15th minute sending off of a Whitstable player would have made this easy for Chatham, but you'd be wrong. They failed to make the extra man count, with the strikeforce of Kane Rice (finally being played where he might be able to show some of his talents) and Billy Shinners not really getting anything from the extra man. Chatham have lacked a midfield with bite all season, and it showed here. If we'd have had a Matt Solly in the middle and a Lee Barnett up front we might have destroyed Whitstable before the half time whistle. Instead we went in 0-0 with just a scuffed Shinners shot against the post to murmur about. Chatham did dominate without looking menacing in a benign second half, and took the lead when Kane Rice took it upon himself to drift to the wing to at least get a cross in, which whipped over everyone into the Oyster's net. 1-0 Chatham. But we again, not for the first time this season, fell apart at the back, and lost 2-1, their first goal a sublime turn and shot, the second the usual Chatham defensive rubbish we've come to see, Tedder flapping at a ball, and no one dealing with it. The ten men of Whitstable were the better side and embarrassed us to yet another defeat. Paul Foley clearly won't be hear next season. We have, I'm reliably informed, registered 28 players this year who've previously been at VCD. To what end? We're as good as relegated without it happening , the news of two sides resigning from the Southern League meaning, in all probability, that the six 21st placed clubs at this lower end of the pyramid won't go down. We're five adrift of Corinthian Casuals with a dodgy run in to say the least, culminating with Bognor Regis, who have a title to win, on the last day of the season. I'll lay off the obvious calls for managers' heads etc until the fat lady has done the thing that fat ladies do, but let's face it, we're not turning this season around any time soon. What a dismal crock of the proverbial this year was. Can't say I'm fussed to come back this year. What's the point in spending money on something so bad with such an inevitable result? Its like paying to have your cat put down. Twice. Of course, I'll probably go to the remaining home games. With the sick cat. Asking for the kindly vet. And then walking out wondering why I bothered with animal husbandry in the first place. You know what I mean, stop bleating...