Sittingbourne 2 (Smith, Foxley) Whitstable Town 3 (Rowlands – 2, Grant)
Isthmian League South East Division
Tuesday 21st October 2026
Report by: John Pitts
Sittingbourne suffered their third defeat in a row and now having only one win in nine matches.
With many key players out injured plus Captain Bagasan Graham suspended it was a unfamiliar line up that Reece Prestidge fielded. Three players made their debuts. Joshua Samuels whose last club was Welsh side Bala, Edgar Valesquez Valesquez who signed from Enfield Town and Jay Beckford from Burgess Hill Town. This is Jay’s second stint with the club after making 41 appearances in the 2024-2025 season.
Unsurprisingly, with all the enforced changes, Sittingbourne started slowly, and Whitstable dominated the early exchanges. The Oystermen took the lead after just five minutes when poor defending allowed Dean Grant an easy tap-in from two yards. The goal followed a fine run down the left wing by Kenny Allen, whose cross was intercepted but fell to a Whitstable player who’s cross found Dean Grant, totally unmarked and in acres of space. He met the ball perfectly and his downward header gave Sullivan no chance.
Whitstable were much quicker to the ball than the Brickies and they continued to dominate.
A chance did turn up for The Brickies midway through the half when a free kick was awarded about 3 yards from the penalty area. Harvey Smith stepped up to take it and the kick bought a fine save from Whitstable keeper, Dan Colmer who tipped the ball over the bar.
Whitstable were still the better team though and it was not surprising when they made it 2-0. It was “Veteran” Kane Rowland who scored. A shot came in that Sulliven parried away but only as far as far as Rowland who just managed to get his foot to the ball and knock it over the goal line. It was 2017 when Rowland made his debut for the Brickies and he has scored a good number of goals since then for other clubs.
Sittingbourne pulled a goal back when the hard working Mitchell May passed to Harvey Smith whose shot was perfectly struck to give the Brickies some hope of a come back.
However, it was soon 3-1 and again it was Rowland who scored. This was similar to his first goal again he was in the right place when a shot came in, Sullivan got a hand to it and the ball landed at Rowlands feet and he made no mistake in scoring.
The second half was much even. Whitstable had used a lot of energy in the first half and perhaps thought they had done enough.
This was a half of few chances. Unlike the first half Sittingbourne did most of the attacking.
The only goal of the half came when Darren Foxley took a corner that Dan Colmer tried to grab but he never had full control of it. He was challenged and the ball slipped out of his hands an into the goal to make it 3-2 to Whitstable.
On Saturday the Brickies visit Cray Valley PM and hopefully some of their injured players will be back. One player though who will miss the game is Captain, Bagasan Graham who will be serving the last game of his suspension.
Sittingbourne: Carter Sullivan, Gavin Hoyte, Joshua Samuels (Kieron Agbebi), D’sean Theobalds, Germaine Dua, Edgar Valesquez Valesquez, Jay Beckford (Kharvarn Williams), Joseph Boachie, Mitchell May (Jordan Greenidge), Harvey Smith, Darren Foxley
Whitstable Town: Dan Colmer, Matty Holness, Mason Hunter, Corey Panter, Kenny Aileru (Thomas Hanfrey), Henry Young (Derek Asamoah), Kane Rowland (Mikey Berry), Billie Clark (Robbie Rees), Dean Grant (Sampastian Amatai), Tijan Jadama, Ryan Bernal
Referee: Ayden Gillespie
Att: 392