Saturday 7th October 2023 ko 18:30

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

WHITSTABLE TOWN 2 (Oliver 3 Smith 55)

BEARSTED 1 (Palmer 70)

Att 682

Entry £10

Programme £2

If I’d felt that the hop’s visit to Faversham Town was an exercise in visiting a future Isthmian club then much the same could have been said above Whitstable Town and their home at the Belmont. But tragically in the days leading up to the hop everything changed. The news came through that club volunteer Matt Milne had died suddenly aged just 43 leaving his widow club secretary Francesca and their two young children bereft.

At that point I don’t think anyone would have minded if the game had been called off, there’s more to life after all. The club decided to play the game so I’m sure many if not most turned up at the Belmont expecting a memorial to Matt, but little or nothing else. Who could have possibly expected more?

Like at Faversham Town, the ground has been converted to 3G since I visited 10 years ago. Thankfully the iconic stand remains, but the new scoreboard has been added, very much the baby of Matt Milne. I’m sure that in time it’ll be seen as a means of remembering him.

But this hop game turned into something far more. For a start, the memorial to Matt was as well measured and fitting, as it was emotional. Then the club managed to pull off a quite beautifully hosted game, the curry and chilli on sale managing to both ease the queue at the regular tea bar but also feed hungry groundhoppers on their third game of the day.

To manage that with a crowd of 600 plus was quite an achievement, even without all that had happened beforehand. Robyn and I were fortunate enough to be invited into hospitality. The tomato soup was appreciated as temperatures fell, but more than anything else we were both impressed by the quiet dignity being shown by the officials of both clubs.

We were blessed with a good game too. There’s a part of my footballing soul that doesn’t like the idea of a club like Bearsted cast as the fall guys in these games, but if ever I wanted a team to win it was Whitstable, given their bereavement. They managed it, and the sight of their players at the end walking round the pitch was poignant in the extreme. I hope that in some small way our presence was a comfort to Fran, her family and Whitstable Town FC as a whole.

Shirley steered the coach to our overnight stop at Folkestone. A week earlier we hadn’t expected to be there, but due to another hotel’s error found ourselves overlooking the harbour in a one thousand room hotel, built when this was the main route to France. Times change, which was also a good motif for much of what we’d seen that day.