Chatham Town brought Herne Bay’s 3 match winning start to the season to an abrupt halt at Winch’s Field.

It came despite having been reduced to ten men after just 4 minutes when Corey Holder was shown a red card for denying a goal scoring opportunity to Bay’s James Turner.

The nippy forward was about to pull the trigger on the edge of the six yard box when Holder, already laying on the ground, pushed the ball away from Turner’s feet with an outstretched palm. Danny Walder stepped up to drill the resulting penalty home.

From then on until the final moments of the match Herne Bay seemed content to sit back and attempt to catch the Chats on the break with long balls from their own half, a strange tactic indeed for a team with a numerical advantage. Chatham were much the busier in the 30+ heat, might have equalised in the 12^th when Blackwood fired wide, but duly restored parity on the half hour when Kieron McCann threaded the ball through a narrow corridor of space between defenders and in at the near post.

It was no more than Chatham deserved for their perseverance with passing football achieved elegantly with just 10 men.

After the break, Herne Bay stepped up their game and after a good run down the right by substitute Kane Phillip just after the hour, the resultant cross was swept goalwards by Danny Spiller only for the effort to be headed off the line. 3 minutes later a Spiller free kick was beaten away by Ryan Nicholls in the visitors’ goal.

It fell to Jack Jeffrey, a quarter of an hour after his introduction as a substitute to settle the destiny of the points. 15 minutes from time, Dan Parkinson, with almost his first touch after coming off the bench, gave away a free kick 20 yards out in a central position. Jeffrey stepped up and curled the ball over the wall and into the bottom left hand corner with Jack Delo, the home ‘keeper rooted to the spot.

Herne Bay might have had a dramatic equaliser in the closing stages but Ryan Nicholls somehow managed to tip Connor Sanders top corner bound acrobatic effort over the bar.

A goal for the home side then would have been reward for their belated endeavour but would equally have been harsh on the hardworking Chats who leapfrogged Bay into 4^th place as the latter plummeted from the summit of the league to 5^th. It’s all small margins at this time of the season!

 

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Connor Sanders, Dan Johnson, Liam Quinn, Danny Spiller (Dan Parkinson 70), Danny Walder, Elliot Cutts (Kane Phillip 60), Mark Lovell, James Turner (Danny Williams 21), Steven Ita.

Subs not used: Giorgio Russo, Kane Butler.

Sent Off: None  Cautioned: Michael Turner, Danny Williams

 

Chatham Town: Ryan Nicholls, Richard Davies, Laurence Collins, Corey Holder, Lewis Knight, Kwabena Osei, Siao Blackwood (George Humber 67), Joe Loft, Joe Bingham (Austin Edwards 83), Andrew Dalhouse (Jack Jeffrey 59), Kieron McCann.

Subs not used: Jack Sullivan. (only 4 subs named).

Sent Off: Corey Holder  Cautioned: Richard Davies, Laurence Collins, Siao Blackwood, Joe Bingham

 

Referee:  Peter Killip      Assistant Referees: Elad Amir & Manny Nketiah.

 

Man of the Match: Joe Bingham (Chatham Town)

Herne Bay (1) 1

Danny Walfer 4 (pen)

 

Chatham Town (1) 2

Kieron McCann 30

Jack Jeffrey 75

 

Attendance: 201

Picture supplied by Steve Barton.