It was stalemate at the wet and windy Belmont Ground as both sides struggled to create any clear cut chances in a closely fought encounter.

Saturday 29-July-2017
WHITSTABLE TOWN 0 HORNCHURCH 0

WT – Eason – Savage – Harry Brown – Stuart West – Ashley Brown – Bryant © – Sproson – Lee – Freeman – Goodger – Williams
Subs – Gillman – Jack West – Sam Brown – Harrold – Birch

HFC – Mott – Hursit – Porter – Bentley – Goodacre – Styles © – Fairweather-Johnson – Chouman – Tuohy – Purcell – Warner
Subs –
McKenzie for Tuohy 55
Wall for Purcell 55
Joseph for Goodacre 70
Cohen for Styles 70
Francis for Warner 75
Hutchings for Chouman 85
Hussain for Fairweather-Johnson 86

Officials – Kane Kempster with Dan Doyle and Roger Wadhams

WT – red / white / red
H – yellow / blue / blue

WHITSTABLE TOWN 0 HORNCHURCH 0

On a rainy day at the seaside, neither team could find a way through in an end-to-end encounter.

Hornchurch had the better of the early exchanges, with Jamie Hursit firing wide from a corner, and Dan Eason saving well from a Martin Tuohy header after he had ran on to Jay Porter’s centre.

Eason made another fine save from Tuohy, before a Bradley Warner corner found George Purcell, whose shot was just wide of the target.

Eason saved again from Tuohy, before Whitstable came back strongly, winning two corners in succession, with Porter clearing Ricky Freeman’s shot off the line.

Warner had a chance to open the score when he ran on to a long ball out of defence, but Eason once again rose to the occasion, saving well to keep the shot out of the net.

Hornchurch began the second half strongly, when Elliot Styles played the ball out to the left to Porter, and Eason saved Tuohy’s shot from just a few yards out.

Then followed a spell of Whitstable pressure, with three corners in a row, with Styles being booked somewhere in between.

At the other end Theo Fairweather-Johnson went close, his shot being blocked by a defender.

Eason tipped a Jed Chouman free kick over the bar, and Eason was again in action, with an excellent save from Tuohy.

Warner moved out to the wing and sent over a good cross to Fairweather-Johnson, whose shot rose over the bar.

In the closing minutes two home players were shown a yellow card, as both sides came near to scoring, but an entertaining match ended without goal – and just as the match ended, so the rain began to fall in earnest.