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Promising young Gillingham striker Ronald Sithole is being tipped to have a bright future - and hasn’t taken long to make an impact at Whitstable.
Sithole - the younger brother of Bolton’s ex-Gills striker Gerald - is on loan from the Priestfield outfit and netted in their 4-2 home success on Tuesday in the Southern Counties East Premier Division over bottom side Canterbury City.
It was a first competitive appearance with Marcel Nimani’s men, although Sithole also recently played in a 3-2 home friendly defeat to Faversham.
“A huge thank you to Gillingham and Bryan Bull, in particular, the under-18s manager at Gillingham who have put their trust in us,” said Nimani, after his long-awaited first home win at The Belmont.
“This was Ronald’s second game, he played in a friendly as well. He was brilliant on Tuesday.
“He’s a very good striker, he has a good future ahead of him and it’s a relationship which works both ways.
"He supports and helps us, and we help him by giving him senior experience.”
Winger Harry Gamble was another of Whitstable’s scorers against Canterbury, his effort also his first for the club.
Nimani said: “I know Harry very well. He’s a bit of a veteran in this league.
“He has been in this league for a while now.
"Harry is known for scoring goals and can be quite feisty but there’s another side to Harry a lot of other managers don’t see - his intelligence off the ball and his leadership.
“That’s why I brought him in and he led the line perfectly.”
Midfielder Victor Aiyelabola and substitute Josh Oliver also scored while midfielder Liam Gillies blazed over a second-half penalty.
It was a positive end to a tough 2022 which saw Whitstable relegated from Isthmian South East.
“It’s sad, really, because this is a phenomenal club,” said Nimani.
“The fans here are just phenomenal, the staff are just brilliant, and everybody wants to be successful.
“We’re all desperate for a bit of success. We want to give it to the fans, it just takes a little bit of time.
“Every team in this league can beat anybody, as you could see from how Canterbury played, so consistency needs to follow.
"That’s what we are trying to build now.”
Alongside midfielder Oliver, Dean Grant and teenage winger Sammi Takaloo were introduced off the bench too.
“The competition is healthy at the moment,” noted Nimani, close to signing another wide player.
“Let’s not forget that I have also left five players out of the squad and, about five weeks ago, those five players would have been around the starting 11.
“It’s quite challenging at the moment.
"But we are here to serve the club by making sure that the competition is healthy and we get the best out of players.”
Next up is a trip to Punjab on Monday (3pm kick-off), Punjab last month earning a 2-1 success at Whitstable.
Nimani said: “They’re a very good unit.
“It depends what side of Punjab we get. If we get the side of Punjab which played us here, where they had eight Step 4 players last year, that becomes a very difficult challenge.
“If you get Punjab on full recruitment, they can beat anyone in this league. That’s what we met last time around.
“They’re a good team, run by a good management team.
"So we’re expecting to come up against a very tough side.”
