FAV SF Hartpury Uni 0 Whitstable Town 0 (agg 0-2)

6 April 2025

Brock may only have two games left, but that doesn’t mean your roving reporter only has two more games to watch this season!  You may remember that back in January, the Content Adviser and I went to watch Hartpury beat Fareham in the 4th round of the FA Vase… two wins later, the students find themselves in the semi-final, played on a Sunday – what’s not to like?  One abiding memory from that previous game was taking extra-long using the hand-drier at half-time in an attempt to thaw my hands out, it was freezing; thankfully, today was a glorious sunny day, although the stiff breeze made the flight of the ball unpredictable at times.  And a tough assignment for the hosts, having lost the away leg 2-0, 90 minutes to determine who was going to face Whyteleafe at Wembley in May. 

Regular readers, such as they are, might be unfamiliar with these two teams, so a word about each.  Hartpury are currently top of the Hellenic Premier, 5 points clear of Roman Glass St George with two games to go, so they look booked for promotion to Step 4.  Whitstable are sixth in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division, but with enough games in hand to make Solomon blush (if Solomon would have blushed at that kind of thing) and could well find themselves in the playoffs.  Neither side has reached a Vase final before.  Whitstable have also had some excellent recent home crowds (well above 300), many of whom followed them to Gloucestershire to swell the total crowd to 905.  One of their flags called them the Oyster Boys and their official nickname is The Oysters, but the fans seemed to be singing “Seasiders” a lot (my geographic knowledge isn’t perfect but they must surely almost be Estuaryites… they could have been in a song by Desmond Dekker…).  For Wessex League devotees, I would describe them as Fareham on steroids and with more drums (but fortunately no rattles).  Absolutely none of which is to criticise the fans, who were fantastic.  They sang all afternoon, and why wouldn’t you – I was excited enough when my Step 5 team reached Round 5, and they were one performance from the national stadium.  And – spoiler alert, although the result’s at the top of the page anyway – the way the team and fans celebrated together at the end was very cool.

OK, on with the game.  In any match, the first goal is important.  In a semi-final, more so.  When one team is already two goals up from the first leg, it’s probably crucial (as Andover New Street discovered).  We happened to be standing near the Oysters during their warm-up and heard a member of the management team demanding a fast start… oh and did he get that.  For 15 minutes or so, Whitstable were dominant, peppering the box with crosses, almost total possession, the tie-deciding goal seemed inevitable.  In truth, the students looked a bit overawed by the occasion.  But gradually they built their way into the game, remembering perhaps that a team which is top of their league after 36 games must get a lot of things right.  Unfortunately for them today, most of their players did good things, but they didn’t do them often enough, or were unable to string them together to create that crucial opening, or even sustained passages of controlled play.   Nobody was disgraced, they worked hard, but the immovable object of the visiting defence stood firm.  The closest the hosts came in the first half was a neat move shortly before the break, Prifti’s shot tipped over by Colmer.  It was no doubt a save he’d have expected to make, but the first sign of hope for Hartpury.  HT 0-0

Second half, more of the same – slightly more urgency from Hartpury, but Whitstable were happy to stay solid and play on the break – and they looked dangerous on several occasions.  They were almost gifted a goal on 56 when keeper Sarkodie received a backpass, shifted it slightly to his right but presumably didn’t quite get the contact he wanted, and the wind threatened to take it into the net – the keeper just scrambled across in time to boot it away!  Whitstable’s Harvey Smith, who impressed me greatly, slightly overhit a cross on the hour, leading to Sithole trying an overhead kick – good contact, looked on target, blocked away.   But most of the game was attack foundering on defence, and as time ticked away one last break, O’Mara-Knapp (I think) with a super run, his cross evading Jeche, met by Smith who passed the ball past the post.  It was the most presentable chance of the game…  The students didn’t quit, forced another flying save in injury time and then one of them hit a shot from 25 yards which whistled over the bar; but nothing doing.  FT 0-0

Congratulations to Whitstable – they were in control pretty much throughout and looked like a very professional outfit, which is a big compliment to an amateur team.  My man of the match would be a toss-up between Smith and Jeche, both of whom worked tirelessly, but I suspect the two centre-backs Coyle and O’Mara would have something to say about that.  Not, I think, that any of them will be overly concerned this evening about the musings of a random semi-neutral.  Good luck to the Oysters and their boisterous fans at Wembley, and my personal thanks to Marc and Andy for their hospitality.