Manager Marcel Nimani insists he’s still a fan of the extra stoppage time being played this season – despite Whitstable falling victim to it.

An extraordinary ending to last Saturday’s 3-2 Southern Counties East Premier Division home loss to strugglers Welling Town ended Whitstable’s six-match winning run.

Striker Harvey Smith put The Oystermen 2-1 ahead in the 91st minute after winger Josh Williams’ second-half penalty had cancelled out former Whitstable frontman Marcus Elliott’s early goal.

But three minutes later, the visitors equalised and Welling Town snatched the winner in the 99th minute.

It comes with England’s refereeing body the PGMOL having opted to use more additional time in order to reduce time-wasting and better account for goal celebrations, substitutions and injuries this term.

Nimani said: “It’s fantastic. If there’s one thing I would like to praise the authorities for, it’s the fact they’re playing the added time.

“We’re a team that likes to play football, we want to play 90 minutes of football.

“I looked at the statistics a while back and, in some games, they were actually only active for around 40 minutes. There’s no point in teams time-wasting now. I certainly don’t think ‘Had the game finished earlier, we maybe wouldn’t have lost’.

“Even though we were on the receiving end of it, I don’t blame the authorities. I praise them.”

A presentation was held before kick-off on a wet afternoon in recognition of full-back Jake Mackenzie, who passed 250 club appearances last week.

Nimani said: “He has stood by the club.

“He is a Step Four or a Step Three full-back. His commitment to the club and the community is inspirational.

“Quite a few players are going to take some milestones soon. The result would never overshadow them, it was still Macca’s day on Saturday.”

Whitstable had moved to the fringes of the play-off places but Nimani praised the efforts of lowly Welling Town.

“It was a chaotic last five minutes, really, that undid a lot of hard work in the second half,” reflected the boss.

“It was disappointing because we had got ourselves into a winning position at 2-1. But, in the last five minutes, a bit of immaturity and naivety undid our winning position. It was a very good performance from the opposition.

“In the last seven games, we have scored 22 goals. That’s more than three goals a game.

“We just need to address a couple of off-the-ball situations.”

Whitstable will now aim to quickly bounce back with three matches in a seven-day period. They visit Rusthall this Saturday, are at home to Lydd on Tuesday and travel to Fisher the following weekend.

“We cannot grumble and there’s no point dwelling on that defeat because we have three exciting games to come,” said Nimani.

“We have got three extremely tough tests. On the flipside, they’re opportunities to climb up the table.

“We’re away to Rusthall on Saturday. They’re very tough opposition.

“Then, we are at home to Lydd. There’s no beating about the bush - although they don’t have a rich history at this level at this stage, they have a great squad.

“Then, we’re away to Fisher. They made the Challenge Cup Final last year and have had a great start to the season.

“They don’t drop many points at home.”

Frontman Steadman Callender could make his comeback from injury soon.

Nimani added: “The squad is fine. There’s a couple of niggly injuries but we have got a big enough squad to manage.

“We’re hoping to get Steadman back training. He will be pushing for a place in the squad.”

Whitstable have been drawn away to Kennington in the Challenge Cup Third Round.