Whitstable Town are ninety minutes from a Wembley final in the Isuzu FA Vase after deservedly winning their Semi-Final first leg tie in front of nearly three thousand at the Belmont last weekend, but manager Jamie Coyle is taking nothing for granted.

Their 2-0 win over Hartbury University thanks to goals from Nathan Jeche and Finn O’Mara puts Jamie Coyle’s side in prime position to secure a place at Non-League Finals Day on May 11th. But as Coyle told us this week, he is only too well aware that the Oystermen have achieved nothing… so far! 

“The result and the performance on the pitch coupled well with everything that went off it,” the Whitstable boss told us.

“I was over the moon with the level of performance, and the only frustrating thing for me was that we should have had a lot more goals which would make Sunday’s second leg so much easier! But their keeper was Man of the Match pulling off some wonderful saves throughout the game, and on another day, we could have got four or five!” 

“It was a really good day, but we’ve done nothing yet! It was good that the players weren’t singing and dancing at the end because they know as well as we do as a management team that we have to replicate the same level of performance on Sunday as they are a well good, well organised side and we are going to have to deliver the same performance again to get a positive result and get us to Wembley!”  

“Saturday was an unbelievable day for everyone involved. A lot of hard work went on behind the scenes from the volunteers and the board getting the stadium ready and organised.

“The feedback we’ve had has been brilliant and the club has done unbelievable on the day. The preparation was phenomenal from everyone involved, there were members of the board who hardly saw anything as they were so busy during the match. It’s so good to see, there were a lot of stressful faces when I arrived at the Belmont but come half five, they were smiling!” 

“The backing we got from the fans was amazing. Walking round the pitch afterwards and seeing so many “new” faces was terrific. And all we can hope as a player or a member of the management team, if we can retain just fifteen or twenty percent of the people whose first game it potentially was and enjoyed it.”

“Hopefully it will have a reflection on gates going forward. To see the town of Whitstable coming together was great and the many, many new faces we hope we will see again!” 

Playing the second leg on Sunday means that Coyle’s players with have just over 48 hours to recover before the SCEFL chasing Oystermen travel to face a Punjab United side who sit third in the play-off race, three places and five points ahead of Coyle’s side – something that the Whitstable boss is only too well aware.

“Tuesday is a massive game for us as well. The only positive thing I can say is that we have several players in our squad now who are cup-tied and cannot play Sunday, and they are chomping at the bit to be involved and will have to “make-do” with Tuesday.”

“It goes down to the togetherness of this group; we have Dean Grant and Bradley Schaffer who can’t play Sunday but are still travelling with the group at the weekend and then come Tuesday night they will be raring to go and get back into the team and deliver the performance that they haven’t been able to in the Vase.”

“Yes it is a negative they can’t play Sunday, but our results have shown that the run hasn’t side-tracked us in the League and that is I think because we have been able to change the team around and the strength in depth that we have in the squad has made a tremendous difference in whatever competition we have played in!”