Chatham Town stayed in the title Southern Counties Eastern Football League title hunt but did so the hard way – twice having to come from behind before a screamer from skipper Jack Evans finally edged the home side in front to end spirited K Sports resistance.
After losing the reverse fixture back in October by the same score, the visitors who started the day 14th struck first when Regan Corke gave them a tenth minute lead.
The Chats equalised on 26 minutes when Evans finally forced the ball over the line after an initial corner had only been half cleared, before the visitors took advantage of some really slack defending to grab the half time lead.
It was a lead they only held until ten minutes into the second half when Paul Hayes headed home a debut goal from Justyn Robert’s deflected cross. The points were only secured six minutes from time when Evans got on the end of a superb Rob Denness lay off to brilliantly ride a couple of tackles before drilling the ball home to send most of the crowd home happy.
Going into the game, the Chats sat fourth just four points behind leaders Beckenham Town knowing that they needed to recover from Tuesday’s defeat at rivals Corinthian – just their second defeat in a dozen SCEFL games – and they started brightly. Hayes thought he’d marked his debut with a goal inside five minutes only for Sports keeper Jack Howard to produce a sensational save to keep out his header.
Indeed, given their start, when Corke sprinted clear of the home defence to slot the ball past keeper Jordan Carey to open the scoring it came as a surprise to many. What wasn’t a surprise was the home sides response and on twenty-six minutes, following an intricate corner routine between Matt Bodkin and Evans, the skipper was on hand to bundle the ball over the line after the initial corner had been cleared. This was his sixth goal in the last six games.
However, kamikaze defending was to deny the Chats parity at the break as James Alderman raced onto Adam Hooper’s through ball – which should really have been cut out to score with a low shot beyond the keepers reach.
The second half began with the home side clearly focused on getting back into the game. Denness should have done better with a header from Jon Pilbeam’s cross before Hayes did level the scores for the home side.
Bodkin’s cross was headed away as far as Roberts, whose deflected centre found its way to Hayes at the far post who stooped low to level the scores.
Moments later, Pilbeam worked his magic again down the right and on this occasion his deep cross found its way to the back post where between them Hayes and substitute Harvey Brown somehow contrived to sky the ball high over the bar from barely a yard out.
Fortunately for the home side, they weren’t to rue that miss as with just six minutes left, Evans burst onto Denness’ fine knock down to drill the ball beyond a despairing Howard to secure the win for the home side.
Three points gained that lifts the Chats into third in the table replacing Sheppey United who were held at home by Glebe.
Ten, nine and eight games respectfully left for the top three and just four points separate Beckenham Town, FA Vase Semi Finalists Corinthian and the Chats – lets now just hope that such an intriguing, fascinating and exciting fight for the SCEFL title will eventually be allowed to be played out to a natural conclusion.
CHATHAM TOWN – Carey, Pilbeam, Roberts, Butler, Dickens, Orji, Hayes, Evans, Denness, Bodkin, Dalton
Subs – Brown, Vines, Abioye, Geddis, Nicholls
K SPORTS – Howard, Binder, Hooper, Montgomery, Penfold, Dolan, Pring, McLaughlin, Corke, Alderman, Marian-Petrisor
Subs – Marshall, Akanni, Debnam, Cooper, McLeish
REFEREE – Mr Woods