A poor game for both sides on many fronts but at least Chatham came away with the points. Two second-half goals for the hosts – one a smash and grab and the other a gift were almost their only two clear cut chances of the whole match, but at least that was two more than City.

An error strewn first-half had an entertainment value of zero and although there were plenty of passes made and the ball whizzed backwards and forwards, chances were negligible from either side as all the effort and intent shown failed to produce any end product.

A couple of big balls into the Chatham box from City were well taken by home keeper Ryan Nicholls, while Dave Pilcher had the ball nicked off his toes in front of goal and Matt Martin was an inch away from a header. City were bereft of goalmouth action but Pilcher almost latched onto a Jordan Casey flick-on before miscuing a shot wide and then hit a dipping volley over the bar.

That was just about the story of City’s first-half, with Chatham’s tale hardly any better. Taylor McDonagh shot over from twenty-five yards and then turned on the edge of the box before horribly screwing a shot well wide, while a header from a free-kick went a yard or two the wrong side of the post.

Kyron Lightfoot saw his shot deflected over the City bar, but only the referee will know why he was allowed to get away with bundling City’s Laurence Harvey off the ball in the build-up, while a corner and free-kick from Chatham were both well cleared with commanding headers by Harvey and, apart from a late yellow card each, that in a nutshell was the story of the first-half.

The second-half started in much the same vein and remained so until Chatham finally broke the deadlock in the sixty-ninth minute. Casey stubbed a shot wide for the visitors after a good break forward from Rob Lawrence, while Pilcher saw another effort go wide from distance. A promising free-kick for Chatham was sent over the wall but was nothing more than catching practise for City keeper Jack Delo before the first goal of the game arrived from a Chatham corner. The ball was curled into a crowded penalty area and saw a flick on to the far post where Jesse Darko fired the ball home from close range for 0-1.

City were lucky to survive not going two down immediately after when a piercing break down the left led to a low shot well saved by Delo but he couldn’t hold onto it and the rebound was fired wide via a lucky double deflection, from which the ensuing corner saw a glancing header also go wide.

Chatham were now sensing victory and hurried forward looking for a second. Another corner was headed straight at Delo while another lucky escape soon followed for City as Timi Osibodu burst through, drew Delo and slid the ball past the advancing keeper but also narrowly past the far post.

City tried to respond to find an equaliser and having made all three changes threw everything and everyone forward. Casey hit a bouncing ball well over the bar, Nicholls saved a low shot from Pilcher while Connor Hendricks fired wide from a tightening angle.

In the sixth minute of stoppage time, Chatham sealed the result with their second. A break down the left had been just about dealt with but the pass back to Delo was tight. He shimmied past the attacker into space and needing to drive City on quickly, the keeper moved forward and tried to play the ball out. Unfortunately, he lost the ball to Michael Hagan and with Delo stranded well away from his goal, the Chatham substitute had the simple task of firing the ball into a very empty net for 0-2.

That was virtually the last action of a match, that City didn’t deserve to win and Chatham only did by default!

Final score; Canterbury City 0 Chatham Town 2

City; Jack Delo, Josh McCallum (Gary Sayer), Jamie Maxted, Joe Nelder, Laurence Harvey, Cory Walters-Wright, Jordan Casey, Connor Hendricks, Rob Lawrence (Dan Keyte), Dave Pilcher, Matt Martin (Sam Lawford).
Unused sub; Shannon Harris.