Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Cloke double sparks comfortable cup win
SCEFL round-up
Whitstable regained their goal touch on Tuesday night in the Southern Counties East Challenge Cup.
They hosted Croydon, who are also flying high in the league, and managed to put four past them.
Charlie Smith opened the scoring in the eighth minute to set the tone for the evening.
Craig Cloke added Town’s second just before half-time with Ricky Freeman putting the result beyond doubt in the 60th minute with his side’s third.
Cloke added Town’s fourth in the 84th minute to help them through to the quarter-finals of the competition.
Town, though, missed out on a chance to close the gap on the Southern Counties East, Premier Division leaders after drawing 1-1 away at Erith Town on Saturday.
They wasted several second-half chances to take all three points but the gap between Scott Porter’s side in fifth and Sevenoaks Town remains six points after the leaders drew with Tunbridge Wells.
Erith had the better of the chances in the first half with Whitstable’s best opportunities coming from Stuart West’s header, which was just over, and Rob Gilman hitting the outside of the post.
Stuart Zanone opened the scoring for the home side in the 41st minute when poor defending allowed him in for an easy goal.
Whitstable could have been two down at half-time were it not for their goalkeeper Dan Eason. He saved Daniel Palfrey’s penalty just before the break after James Morrish was penalised for holding in the box.
Town came out in the second half the better side and were rewarded in the 52nd minute when West prodded in at the far post.
But for all their pressure, they failed to make Erith pay with their best chances coming from Craig Cloke who saw a couple of efforts go just wide.
They were reduced to 10 men late on when Morrish received a second yellow card.
Town again host Croydon on Saturday for a league match with the sides level on points in fifth and sixth position.
Canterbury City are yet to play in 2018 but on Saturday they travel to Sevenoaks and will be hoping to continue their run of three successive victories.