Derby day at the Belmont. The fixture gods decided to leave this one late in the year, and these two teams find themselves playing each other for the first time this season. There were interesting match-ups all over the park: family playing family, friends playing friends, players playing their old clubs. It was always going to be frantic. Whitstable started brightly and it took resolute defending and solid goalkeeping from a starting back five of Tobin, Soutan, Bottle, McCarthy and Russell to keep a clean sheet. Set piece defending from Herne Bay was excellent and they continued to weather a bit of a red storm. Chatfield, Mclean, Stace, Tewiah and Elliot worked hard across the middle to close down, and Herne Bay got themselves back into the game. Southby up front was a constant menace, and this resulted in the award of a penalty midway through the first half. Jamie took it himself and coolly slotted it into the corner. 1 - 0 Bay. The game continued to Ebb and Flow, but a breakaway led to a Whitstable chance which their striker fired home. 1 -1 . Hills, Momkov and Munu provided fresh legs and in the second half, Watson took over between the sticks and Tobin, after a solid stint in goal, was able to move into midfield to cover Chatfield who had picked up a knock. Much like the first half, Whitstable started brightly and managed to sneak a goal at the back post to make it two-one, and they were then awarded a dubious penalty to stretch their lead to 3-1. Herne Bay rallied together and the back five locked things down with Watson making some great saves. This allowed Herne Bay to pile on the pressure and Munu, Hills, Tewiah and especially Southby were a constant threat. Tobin played a beautiful ball through to Hills, and his composed finish made it 3-2. Game on! Herne Bay kept up the pressure and Southby, a constant thorne in Whitstable's side, was brought down just outside the box. Mclean stepped up and rifled the free-kick past the outstretched arms of the Whitstable keeper. 3-3. Both teams had chances to win it late on but with a few minutes to go, Herne Bay won a corner after solid work from Tewiah. Mclean whipped it in, and Southby met it with a bullet header. 4-3 to the Bay and that is how it stayed. A fantastic game of football played in excellent spirit between two good teams who meet again in two weeks. Up the Bay!