Beckenham Town 2-0 Chatham Town - We've shown we can compete with the top teams, says proud Beckenham Town assistant manager Phil Wilson

Beckenham Town 2 – 0 Chatham Town
Location	Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JL
Kickoff	31/01/2023 19:45

BECKENHAM TOWN  2-0  CHATHAM TOWN
Isthmian League South East Division
Tuesday 31 January 2023
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue 

BECKENHAM TOWN assistant manager Phil Wilson says his players’ have shown that they can mix it with the top teams after deservedly beating the league leaders Chatham Town at Eden Park Avenue.

The two sides met at Maidstone Road 10 days ago with Kevin Hake’s side extending their 100% home record with a comfortable three-nil victory, but Jason Huntley’s men sealed the deal with two goals inside the final 10 minutes in front of their largest home league crowd of the season.

Talisman striker Louie Theophanous, 30, notched his 20^th goal of the season with a deflected strike, before former Redhill attacker Jamarie Brissett pounced on a goalkeeping blunder to score his seventh of the season to seal a flattering last-gasp clincher.

Chatham Town remain at the summit of the Isthmian League South East Division table with 48 points from 23 games.

Hake's men beat seventh-placed side Ashford United 4-1 at Homelands at the weekend, which was their sixth win on the bounce in League and cup. 

Chatham Town were without their 15-goal talisman striker Dan Bradshaw tonight and they hardly created any goalscoring chances in front of 325 fans tonight.

Beckenham Town are now in second-place just a point behind, while managerless Ramsgate slip down to third on 46 points, while Cray Valley are in fourth-place with 39 points with a couple of games in hand, with Sheppey United fifth on 37 points.

Since losing in Medway, Beckenham Town have kept three clean-sheets with wins over Faversham Town (3-0), Sittingbourne (1-0) and again tonight, switching formation to three at the back.

“Everything went to plan tonight,” said Wilson.

“We changed the shape again. We knew they were going to have a lot of the ball but I think we limited them all night really.  The back three stood strong all night and I’m really proud of the boys tonight, they did brilliant.

“We wanted to atone for the performance at Chatham. We didn’t do ourselves justice there and tonight we’ve shown that we can compete with the top teams.”

When asked what his players gave to the cause tonight, Wilson replied: “Everything! Absolute heart, work-rate from front-to-back, discipline.  They held their shape the whole time. Everyone was brilliant! The midfield discipline in not getting dragged out of position and keeping it tight in there so they (Chatham) couldn’t play passes in there, absolutely fantastic!”

Chatham Town manager Hake, once again, walked past me, without expressing his thoughts on tonight’s defeat. I’d love to know why?  We all know he's been reading my recent reports on Beckenham Town too!

Beckenham Town created their first opening inside the opening four minutes.

Danny Waldren – recalled to the side and slotting in the heart of their three central defenders – drilled a free-kick into the Chatham Town penalty box.

Steven Townsend was closely marked and he cut the ball back to right-wing-back Harvey Brand, who whipped in a low first time cross for Theophanous to hit a left-footed half-volley on the turn, sailing just past the far post on the angle from 12-yards.

“I mean, Louie will make a chance out of nothing.  I think where he was it was not realty a chance to be had there but he’s created one. I don’t know how close it was. That kind of summed up the chances in the first half really, nothing clear-cut,” said Wilson.

The game then turned into a cagey battle with both sides often hitting long balls and treating the yellow football like a hot potato.

Beckenham Town were certainly up for it, having put in a lacklustre performance on Saturday, a result that ensured Ryan Maxwell experienced his first defeat in his third game in charge of Sittingbourne.

“We knew we had to counter a bit tonight but when we were in and around the box we moved the ball around well.  We were patient at times,” added Wilson.

“I thought first-half, that final ball, we possibly made the wrong decision at times.  We didn’t really have any real chances in the first half that were clear cut but we still shaded that first half with the half-chances we got.”

Brand drilled a long ball out from his right-back position and his precise 60-yard diagonal found Theophanous, who easily cut inside and past Chatham’s right-back Matt Bodkin but his weak right-footed shot from the edge of the box was comfortably gathered by goalkeeper Ben Bridle-Card.

Freddie Cray laid the ball off to fellow midfielder George Goodwin, who clipped another long ball into the Chatham box, which was cleared away by centre-half Simon Cooper and Theophanous took a touch before hitting a stinging left-footed drive from 22-yards, which was caught at the second attempt by the visiting goalkeeper in the 25^th minute.

Chatham Town offered very little up front with debutant loanee from Gillingham Ronald Sitole partnering 12-goal Emmanuel Oloyede up front but they came up against a well-marshalled Beckenham Town back three of Waldren, Mudiaga Wanogho and Robert Carter, pleasing Wilson.

“It’s very rarely do those boys get done in behind. Danny Waldren’s positioning when he goes into the back three is very good when he goes in the middle of the two and he’s also a big talker so he marshals it well back there but even in a four on Saturday they don’t look like they’re beaten.

“As long as the rest of the midfield and the forwards are doing their part defensively and limiting teams to those longer balls, then I always expect them to deal with it.”

Brand, who has scored five goals from full-back this season, missed a glorious chance to smash the stalemate in the 43^rd minute.

Waldren drilled a long ball out of defence and into the left-channel to release winger Steven Townsend, who beat Bodkin, before cutting the ball back for Brand to blaze his first time right-footed drive over the crossbar from 16-yards.

Wilson said: “You expect a bit more quality from Harvey in those positions.  Harvey can finish those, so it summed up the first-half really, not clinical enough at times but we were creating more chances and they weren’t.”

Chatham Town created little in attack and their only opening came on the stroke of half-time.

Jack Evans, who has scored 15 goals this season from central midfield, floated in a free-kick where Reece Butler came up from the back and failed to get his head to the ball as it sailed harmlessly past the far post.

Beckenham Town shaded the first half going into the interval.

“We told them to remain patient….They weren’t finding the ball in behind the back three, who were absolutely solid,” added Wilson.

Chatham Town came out with all guns blazing and created their first chance of the game just 38 seconds into the second half.

Left-back Joseph Taylor rolled the ball inside some 20-yards into Sitole, whose left-footed shot from 22-yards lacked power and was comfortably gathered by Damian Niemczycki at his near post.

The Braintree Town loanee was making his third appearance while Nick Blue recovers from an operation.

“I don’t think Damian’s had a shot to save since he’s been here yet so that shows how well the defence is doing, defensively as a whole team unit, how well we’re doing,” said Wilson, who knows a lot about goalkeeping, having starred for Dulwich Hamlet under Gavin Rose.

“I said at Faversham he’s a reassuring figure to have at the back there. He’s not really been worked in any of the games that he’s played in so I don’t know what his potential is because we haven’t given him the opportunity to show it, which I’m obviously pleased about and as a goalkeeper he’ll be happy with the clean sheets.”

Both sides then cancelled each other out until Beckenham Town regained control of the game and went close to doubling their lead in the 33^rd minute of the half.

Goodwin floated a free-kick into the box, Wanogho hooked the ball across the penalty area and Carter hit a first-time right-footed drive flashing past the left-hand post from 15-yards.

“We were looking at it, we were thinking the game was possibly losing a little bit of life and thinking about what changes to make at that point,” revealed Wilson.

“It was difficult because the boys had done really well. There wasn’t no one who you could say had a bad game but for that 20 minutes there wasn’t really that much going on.

“When we were having the pressure we were you want to capitalise on it so there were some thoughts on changes but we held on.

“Rob Carter’s scored a few good goals in those positions, you’d rather Louie be in that position than Rob Carter!”

Beckenham Town deservedly smashed the stalemate, however, by taking the lead with 34 minutes and 55 seconds on the clock.

Left-wing-back Archie Johnson threw the ball to Brissett, who laid the ball inside to Theophanous, who cut onto his right-foot and drilled a deflected shot across the diving keeper nestling inside the bottom far corner of the net from 25-yards.

Wilson threw out of the bag that he and Peter Sweeney were to replace Theophanous for targetman Alfie Bloomfield while the score was goalless.

Wilson said: “Louie’s always a threat. To be fair to Louie tonight, off the ball he did his bit for the team.

“We were toying with bringing Alfie on, just to work the defence a little bit more.

“We were warming Alfie up….(when asked whether he was going to sub Theophanous before scoring the vital first goal, Wilson replied)…. No, we were warming Alfie up, ready for when he (Theophanous) scored, to take him off.  We were thinking about it.

“We told Alfie to warm up. It was a team decision on the bench (to keep Theophanous on).

“To be fair, when Alfie goes to warm up, Louie usually scores, so Alfie can take an assist as well.”

Chatham Town substitute Prince Domafriyie was a threat down the left-wing with his pace but the league leaders offered no threats during this game as they suffered their sixth league defeat of the season.

Beckenham Town appeared nervy when the electronic sub board went up for an additional six minutes and Chatham Town started to throw caution to the wind in search for grabbing an equaliser.

Hake’s men should have snatched an equaliser with 48:57 on the clock, when they moved the ball quickly from left-to-right and a header in a crowded penalty area was poorly executed.

Evans and Taylor linked up, before Domafriyie cut in and played the ball into fellow substitute Andy Drury in the middle outside the box. The former Margate manager switched the ball out to Bodkin, who took a touch and whipped in a cross but holding midfielder Jordan Robins’ header was poor and the home side were able to clear their lines.

“We possibly did get away with one there.  You earn your luck sometimes and I think our performances recently, it would’ve been very harsh on us tonight, not to come away with three points,” added Wilson, when asked about the lucky escape when Bodkin’s right-wing cross may have struck Wanogho’s arm inside the Beckenham box at 1-0.

Beckenham Town sealed the deal, however, by scoring a flattering second goal with 50:22 on the clock.

A poor touch from Bridle-Card was pounced on by Brissett, who had the simple task of gleefully sliding the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of an open goal from inside the six-yard box to give Beckenham Town a deserved three points.

“It’s testament to the team that Magic (Brissett) has run and put the pressure on the keeper.   We could’ve just put ourselves in a defensive shape but the back-pass to the keeper wasn’t great and his touch was even worse and Magic gets himself on the scoresheet,” added Wilson.

Beckenham Town travel down to Brighton to take on sixth-placed (35 points from 21 games) side Whitehawk on Saturday, before welcoming managerless Ramsgate to Eden Park Avenue next Tuesday, 7 February.

“I believe we’ve gone up to second,” said Wilson, who is keeping his feet on the ground, as last season’s Combined Counties League Premier Division South champions are enjoying an excellent debut campaign in the eighth tier and with all to play for in their final 15 league outings.

“It is tight.  Today shown we can mix it with the top teams.

“We’ve got tough games coming up. Whitehawk is always a difficult place to go. Ramsgate down here on Tuesday and then we’ve got (a trip to) Cray Valley (14 February, three days after playing Haywards Heath Town at home).

“We’ll go against those teams and see where we are at the end of those.  As I said the other day, we’re right in the play-off mix now, who knows. It’s got to be our target now.  We’ve got to maintain and get in there.

“The boys have done so well this season to put themselves in this position. They’ve got to be 100% now.  The run we’re on is good. We can’t afford to slip up at any point now. We’ve got to stay focused and just give 100%.  If the boys do that, wherever we finish, we’ll be proud.

“It’s been a great season, a really enjoyable season. We’ll continue to quietly do our business and try not to make too much noise.”

Beckenham Town: Damian Niemczycki, Harvey Brand, Archie Johnson, Danny Waldren, Mudiaga Wanogho, Robert Carter, Steven Townsend, Freddie Cray, Louie Theophanous (Alfie Bloomfield 88), George Goodwin (Freddie Nyhus 86), Jamarie Brissett.
Subs: Nick Curran, Henry Griffin, Stefan Cox

Goals: Louie Theophanous 80, Jamarie Brissett 90

Booked: Freddie Cray 45, George Goodwin 77, Freddie Nyhus 90

Chatham Town: Ben Bridle-Card, Matt Bodkin, Joseph Taylor, Jordan Robins, Reece Butler, Simon Cooper, Seidou Sanogo (Andy Drury 78), Jack Evans, Emmanuel Oloyede, Ronald Sitole (Daniel Thompson 70), Billy Bennett (Prince Domafriyie 65).
Subs: Dean Beckwith, Callum Peck

Booked: Emmanuel Oloyede 75, Reece Butler 90

Attendance: 325
Referee: Mr Morgan Conn
Assistants: Mr Cliff Angol & Mr Jordan Chrichlow