It’s now six consecutive home defeats for Chatham Town as two very different, but equally composed strikes from Ricky Gundry were not enough to earn a point against Three Bridges, who became the tenth Ryman South side to leave Maidstone Road with all three points this season.
Two goals within 65 seconds of each other kick-started a frantic opening; Allan Tait was in the right place at the right time to open the scoring for Three Bridges, while Ricky Gundry found a similar touch to level.
By the eighth minute, Jamie Brotherton had put the visitors into a lead that they would hold onto, although the game wasn’t made safe until Tait’s second on 75.
Gundry clipped a sublime lob over Kieron Thorp in stoppage time to give the score some respectability; but too little, too late.
Chatham’s manager, Kevin Horlock, was at a loss to explain the recent run at Maidstone Road, and admitted “I don’t know what it is. We seem to be different at home, having good spells in games, but we don’t score when we are on top.”
“For some reason, I don’t know what it is, we have been losing a lot of games at home. We are striving to improve this, and I’m disappointed today as we dug out a great result last week (a 2-0 win at Whitstable) and like all managers, I’m looking for consistency.”
“We’re a little bit stop-start, but we are going to keep working on it, and I am confident for the future.”
“We’re nowhere near the finished side yet, and we were, and are, a young team anyway. We’ve brought a couple of players in with experience, so we are building.”
“But, while we’re building, I’m someone who is going to want to get results, and we have to improve our home form. Not just to move up the league, but we want to get the crowds out to support us, and that comes with winning games.”
The former Northern Ireland U21 boss was quick to praise the two-goal Ricky Gundry, adding “I knew he had that quality in him, it’s just a case of getting the supply to him.”
“The second one came probably five minutes too late, but it wasn’t a great second half although their keeper’s had to make three top saves, and maybe we didn’t protect ours enough. Disappointed at the moment, as it’s all about the three points.”
“It was an unbelievable start to the game. With them going one up so early, you start to think it won’t be your day, but we reacted really well, scoring a great goal, and then gifted them another.”
“I know managers always say it, but I’m going to look back on the game and think we’ve gifted them all three goals. If you do that at any level of football, you’re going to struggle to save games.”
The match got off to an explosive start with Three Bridges taking the lead from the first meaningful attack as Allan Tait capitalised on a save by the right foot of Jack Bradshaw to convert from inside the 6-yard area with only 127 seconds played. Bradshaw had reacted quickly to stop a shot from Jamie Brotherton, but he received no cover from the rest of the Chatham defence as Tait was left with a simple tap-in.
Just 65 seconds later, Luke Medley’s low driven cross from the left wing was allowed to travel through the Three Bridges area, where Ricky Gundry was given time and space to control and fire a shot into the top right corner.
Three Bridges’ keeper, Kieron Thorp, turned a driven shot by Kwabena Osei round the post and Osei had another effort from the resulting corner blocked, but it was the visitors who converted their next chance. A poor defensive clearance was intercepted in the Chatham half by Abu Touray, who played an incisive ball into the path of Jamie Brotherton. The veteran forward took one touch to bring the pass under control and swept a shot across Bradshaw inside the left post.
After the quick start, the remainder of the half struggled to match the intensity, but the pattern had been set, with Three Bridges controlling the middle of the park. Despite this, Chatham did create the better chances, with Thorp being by far the busier of the keepers.
Thorp was down quickly to his right to save from a Medley shot, but unlike Chatham’s defence earlier, Jamie Crellin was on hand to deny a follow-up shot from Fred Obasa. The keeper was next called into action to field a shot from Liam Hickey that came through a crowd of players.
Just before the interval, Hakeem Adelakun unleashed a drive from 30 yards that Bradshaw did well to push round his right post.
Chatham should have been level just before the hour from a short corner. Medley’s cross was flicked on by Osei to the back post, where Obasa lifted his volley over the bar. The Chats were almost made to pay for this as Bradshaw had to push Ben Godfrey’s freekick round the right post, then the keeper had to get down quickly to his left to save another Godfrey shot.
Laurence Collins curled a left-footed freekick on target, with Thorp moving quickly across his goal to tip the effort over, and Medley tried to measure a curling effort from the edge of the area, but his shot slid past the post.
Against the run of play, Chatham’s defensive problems cost them the crucial third goal. Reece Butler and Jon Difford both slipped in the difficult conditions allowing Touray to drive into the left side of the penalty area, where he cut the ball back to Tait, loitering just outside the box. Tait broke through Collins’ tackle and produced an accomplished finish to beat Bradshaw.
Try as they might, Chatham couldn’t find enough to earn a point, but did create the goal of the match. Obasa saw a half-volley saved by Thorp, but in stoppage time, the Three Bridges keeper was a spectator to Gundry’s excellent finish. A long ball from Collins released Gundry in behind the Bridges defence, and as the keeper had advanced off his line, Gundry produced the deftest of lobs to lift the ball over the keeper for a consolation.
Although it was too late for Chatham to hunt down a third goal, their defence did allow Tait to walk through from the kick-off, creating a chance for Mitchel Castleman, who was denied by Bradshaw’s quick reactions.
CHATHAM TOWN: Jack Bradshaw, Richard Davies (Reece Butler 29), Laurence Collins, Joe Loft, Lewis Knight (Jon Difford 46), Liam Hickey, Ricky Gundry, Kwabena Osei, Fred Obasa, Jack Jeffery (John Prince Rylah 77), Luke Medley.
Subs not used: Austin Edwards, Josh Bray.
Goals: Ricky Gundry 4 & 90+3.
Cautions: Fred Obasa 25, Laurence Collins 35, Reece Butler 46, Liam Hickey 62, Ricky Gundry 70.
THREE BRIDGES: Kieron Thorp, Dan Mobsby, Daniel Matt, Hakeem Adelakun, Nigel Brake, Jamie Crellin, Abu Touray (Drew Cooney 82), Ben Godfrey, Allan Tait, Jamie Brotherton (Mitchel Castleman 61), Matt Whitehead (John Lansdale 70).
Subs not used: Mark Pulling, Jon Dollery.
Goals: Allan Tait 3 & 75, Jamie Brotherton 8.
Cautions: Jamie Brotherton 35, Abu Touray 69, Allan Tait 86.
Attendance: 156
Referee: Mr Jonathan Creswick
Assistants: Mr Timothy Dowdeswell and Mr Gareth Mays