After a day verging on the comedic, Chatham Town were grateful to substitute Anthony Carlton’s 81st minute winner to seal the three points.

The home side had a number of decent chances during the game, but for long periods it looked as though the points would be shared, even though Cray rarely threatened Tom Wellham’s net.

In the morning, manager Kevin Watson found that he couldn’t access his car due to a flat battery, and realised that the first team home kit was locked in the boot.  Cue hurried phone calls to Cray to explain their predicament, and you had the unusual sight of the home side running out in their all-blue away kit.

Watson acknowledged the visitors, saying “fair play to Cray, they’ve agreed to bring their home kit, but at this level you have to help each other out like that.”

And, after seeing his side take the spoils, he added “We need to try and build on this (against Thurrock on New Year’s Day) as we’ve been sucked down towards the dropzone.  We made a step forward now, but other teams have games in hand on us.  I still don’t think Cray will be down there, and I’ve said that all along.  But we need to concentrate on ourselves, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be going to Thurrock to get the three points.  You have to have that mentality.”

“We’ve lack creativity recently but today it was frustrating as we created plenty of chances to win the game more convincingly than we did. No disrespect to Cray, but it should have been given the amount of chances we created; I think we’ve nullified them today.”

“We fancied that Greg (Benbow) would score one of his chances, cutting in on his left, but when things aren’t going for you that happens.  We’ve spoken about games that don’t go your way for 90 minutes, but today we were on the front foot and there was a belief out there today.”

“We’ve had a cornerstone of a solid defence, which has given us something to build on, and the guys have done their job for the team today; although you could sense their frustration at not being involved more.  We talk about defending as a team and we’ve done that well.”

The first quarter of the game was as uncompromising as you would expect from a derby match, although Cray’s Tyrone Berry always seemed to have a threat with the ball at his feet on the right wing.

The first opening didn’t come until the 22nd minute, when Matt Solly did well to win the ball on halfway on the left side, and immediately swung a ball in behind the Cray defence.  Greg Benbow anticipated well to run in from the opposite wing, and fired goalwards from the edge of the box, only for Darren Behcet to make a good save to his right side.

On 26, Hussein Isa released Frank Grififn on the right wing, and the fullback’s early cross allowed Berry to hit a half-volley that flew past the left post of the Chatham goal.

From Tom Wellham’s goalkick, Dmitri Larin picked up the first caution of the game for a dangerous challenge on the outstanding Matt Solly, and the freekick allowed Laurence Collins to whip a ball across the face of the Cray goal.  Junior Kaffu found himself free inside the 6-yard box, but couldn’t stretch enough to make a telling contact.

Just past the half-hour, Joe Loft played another diagonal ball over the Cray defence for Benbow to run in from the right side.  This time, Benbow tried to curl his shot to Behcet’s left, but the keeper managed to turn the shot behind for a corner.

Kaffu hit a shot at Behcet, after a cross had deflected off Griffin, and Berry swapped passed with Isa before hitting a drive straight at Wellham.  But for most of the first half the central defenders of each side were the dominant players, breaking up attack after attack, as both sides played their best football in the central third of the pitch.

Ten minutes into the second half, Lewis Knight broke through the defence and latched onto Liam Hickey’s long ball, but could only direct his diving header at Behcet.  The keeper also had to be alert as a shot from Richard Davies skipped up awkwardly off the turf in front of him.

With twenty minutes remaining, Cray saw their best chances go by without reward.  First, Larin found himself free in the area, but headed over.  Then, Laurent Hamici held off Knight, but fired a cross-shot that neither Ben Hunt or Kery Kedze could react to.

On 75, Solly found space on the left edge of the area to put a dangerous cross into the Cray area, where Davies was arriving unmarked from the right.  Davies tried to be too precise in heading back across goal, and the chance dropped wide.

A minute later, Solly was again involved in the build-up, allowing Collins to put a cross into the 6-yard box, where substitute Anthony Carlton somehow managed to lift his chance onto the roof of the stand.

Benbow had a long-range shot deflected wide on 80, and from Solly’s corner, Carlton was unmarked to head powerfully towards the right corner.  The effort took a deflection off both Alex Stavrinou and the right post and was ruled to have crossed the line before being hacked clear.

Although Cray huffed and puffed, they couldn’t find space to pressurise the Chatham defence, who picked up just their second win in 14 league games.

Cray’s new lone manager, Gary Abbott, couldn’t disguise his disappointment with the performance, as he said “I’ve said to the boys before the game that we’ve had a great result against Harlow, but we’ve come here and there are four or five players who just didn’t fancy it.  Our three best ball players were giving the ball away.  We were getting into wide areas and I wanted them to get balls in like we did against Harlow, but we were taking too many touches from the start, and it just wasn’t good enough.  I said before we went out that if you don’t work hard, you won’t get anything from the game.  That wasn’t good enough and I cannot accept it.”

“We’ve been popping the ball about, playing one, two touch, and pressing up from the back, but today we didn’t have any of that.  It was like a completely different team, and that has really got to me.  Take nothing away from Chatham, they deserved to win, but I expected to come here and get something out of this game.  They just wanted it more than we did, and were first to everything.”

“We changed the formation second half to a flat 4-4-2 to get Tyrone (Berry) in behind them as we had nothing from the left side.  We did get in just before they scored, but if only we’d caressed the ball across, Ben (Hunt) or Kery (Kedze) could have got round the back.  Instead it’s been hit across as hard as possible and they’ve missed it, and the game could have been so different.”

“I’m really disappointed at losing that game today because we’ve got players in there who can play.  It was a massive three points for us today, but when you are dwelling on the ball, don’t keep the ball, you get anything from the game.  You can’t keep saying next game, next game, because you start to run out of games.  We’ve got to get back in the pack above us, so now Tuesday (against Thamesmead) is a must win.”

CHATHAM TOWN: Tom Wellham, Richard Davies, Laurence Collins, Jamie Taylor, Liam Hickey, Lewis Knight, Joe Loft (Austin Edwards 90), Corey Holder, Junior Kaffu (Anthony Carlton 67), Matt Solly, Greg Benbow.

Subs not used: Veejay Miller, Lee Kidman, Kane Phillip.

Goal: Anthony Carlton 81.

Bookings: Liam Hickey 60, Lewis Knight 60, Anthony Carlton 90.

CRAY WANDERERS: Darren Behcet, Frank Griffin, Steve Springett, Dimitri Larin, Max Fitzgerald, Alex Stavrinou, Giannoulis Fakinis, Hussein Isa (Kery Kedze 63), Shaun Welford (Laurent Hamici 63), Ben Hunt (Adrian Stone 86), Tyrone Berry.

Bookings: Dimitri Larin 27, Max Fitzgerald 53.

Attendance: 185
Referee: Mr Ollie Jackson (Sittingbourne)
Assistants: Mr Ricky Adams (Higham) and Mr Alex Clark (Snodland)