FA Trophy First Qualifying Round

Whitstable 2
Harrow Borough 0

Harrow Borough’s woes continued as they were deservedly despatched from the FA Trophy by Whitstable Town on Saturday.

First half goals from Damian Abel and Jake Beecroft put the Kent side well in command and without the excellent Elvijs Putnins the game might have been over at the interval.

Borough improved over the interval, but Garry Jones saw a penalty saved by Town keeper Nick Shaw and despite creating a number of chances a great escape never looked likely. 

Borough made the worst possible start, falling behind in just five minutes when a cross from the right was weakly headed away by Michael Barima and Damien Abel turned smartly on the edge of the box to fire high beyond Putnins’ right hand.

Only a desperate last-ditch tackle prevented a second minutes later as the visitors were exposed down their left once more.

The hosts continued to dictate and Putnins had to be at his best to claw away Beecroft’s excellent curler from the left edge after 18 minutes.

The keeper then touched over Michael Everitt’s header from the resulting set piece and the Latvian excelled himself again with a brilliant stop from Stuart Vahid after more good work from Beecroft.

Abel’s venomous shot caused more heart flutters amongst the harassed Borough rear-guard on 25 minutes, but mercifully flashed wide.

Dave Anderson’s side had offered almost nothing going forward and Gary Burrell’s wild lash from distance on 34 minutes did nothing to buck that trend.

However, the left-sided midfielder next effort was a much better one as he forced an excellent diving stop from Shaw after clever hold up play and an astute pass from Nicolai Tararov.

The chance perked up the Middlesex side and Steve Ferguson should have done better when well-placed minutes later, but tried to pass instead of shooting and the chance was gone.

It proved a costly error when Whitstable doubled the lead on 41 minutes, Beecroft surging to the edge of the box before firing into the far corner leaving Putnins helpless.

Boss Anderson’s response was to withdraw Ola Williams who was having a shocker and send Jones on in his place.

Borough desperately needed a lifeline and looked to have been handed one on 48 minutes when Laurence Harvey was harshly penalised for a push on Burrell, but substitute Jones struck the resulting penalty too close to Shaw who beat it to safety.

Three minutes later Rob Wolleaston’s excellent pass sent Joakim Ehui racing goal-wards on the right hand side, but Shaw was out quickly again to parry the effort.

As the pressure mounted Ferguson got in around the back and played in substitute Alwayne Jones who forced Shaw to palm behind once more at his near post.

Danny Leech then got the ball in the net with a header from the resulting corner only to find the referee’s whistle had already gone for a foul on Shaw.

Whitstable almost sewed things up midway through the half when a goalmouth scramble saw the ball fall for Abel, but although his shot from an acute angle beat Putnins Peacock got back to clear off the line.

Jones threatened again with six minutes left only to be denied once more by the knees of Shaw and though five minutes of stoppage time were added a last effort from Burrell was deflected over as Borough bowed out.