Chatham looking to rekindle old flame

Chatham Town boss Steve Binks takes his side to Stamford tomorrow, aiming to become the first visitors to win at the Newflame Stadium, writes Stephen McCartney.

Stamford are unbeaten at home in eighteen Southern League Division One East outings (winning thirteen of them) but Binks wants his side to bounce back following their disappointing 2-1 defeat at the hands of Uxbridge at Maidstone Road last weekend.

Just when we seem to give ourselves some hope we go and shoot ourselves in the foot again,” Binks told www.chathamtownfc.net

“After a well earned away win we started sluggishly against a strong Uxbridge side.
 
“Then just as we haul ourselves back into the game in the first half we conceded a poor goal by not pressing the ball on the left from a throw in on the half way line.
 
“Play is immediately switched to the right where again their wide player has time to pick his spot with a cross into our goalmouth.”

Reflecting on the second half, Binks added: “We started much better.  Luke Harvey breaks through only to shoot too high and then Mark Brooks has a great header tipped over the crossbar.
 
“But then Rob Denness, who is the catalyst of our second half revival, drills in a goal to put us level, following a corner from Simon Austin.
 
“But despite being on top we then concede a very sloppy second goal.  The frustrating thing is that we have very rarely conceded like that all season and have been a hard side to break down.
 
“We’ll be working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen against this season.”

Looking ahead to their trip to the Newflame Stadium tomorrow, Binks, whose side are now eight points adrift of the final play-off spot with just five games to play, added: “Good to see Steve Seale back on the pitch again, but we’ll need to step up a gear in order to get something from the long away trip to Stamford.
 
“They haven’t lost at home all season so it would be great to be the first side to beat them.” 

Stamford  v  Chatham Town
Southern League Division One East
Saturday 8th April 2006
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Newflame Stadium, Kettering Road, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 2JR