Dover Athletic 5-0 Chatham Town

After their excellent win against Maidstone in midweek, hopes were high that Chatham Town could get a result at Dover Athletic, another of the promotion chasing clubs, writes Neil Sanders.

 

However, it wasn’t to be and they found them selves under pressure from the start.
 
The visitors must have got the feeling early that it wasn’t going to be their day quite early when top scorer Rob Denness went off with a shoulder injury, after being on the receiving end of a very heavy challenge from ex-Chat Matt Bourne.
 
The home side had already hit the bar from a Craig Cloke header and then took the lead after 16 minutes.
 
A moment’s hesitation enabled James Dryden to get a touch before the ball reached John Whitehouse and then slot home into the open net from a tight angle.
 
Craig Govey had Chatham’s only chance in the first half.  He timed his run well to latch onto a neat ball over the home defence, but as he was about to lob the keeper a well timed tackle took the ball off his toe.
 
Soon after the break John Whitehouse made the save of the match to keep out a close range shot.
 
Chatham came close to equalising when Gavin Schulz goalbound shot was blocked with the keeper beaten.
 
However, after the hour mark it was virtually all one way traffic. The second goal came from a free kick after 61 minutes, when Bourne headed back across goal for Nick Humphrey to apply the final touch with a close range header.
 
Another ex-Chat then came off the Dover bench to give his ex-team mates a torrid last half hour.
 
Byron Walker scored the third goal after skipping through two tackles before finishing neatly in the bottom corner.
 
Things got worse for Chats when a long throw caused problems for the defence and resulted in Tom Binks heading into his own net.
 
The final goal came after 81 minutes thanks to a good run down the right by Jon Wallis, who did well to provide a cross which was headed in at the far post by Walker. 

The injury list could yet prove to be Chatham’s biggest problem in their relegation fight.

James Holder was unavailable after picking up a knock in midweek and Steve Best was restricted to 8 minutes, also due to an injury picked up against Maidstone.
 
With Denness leaving Dover with his arm in a sling and Gavin Schulz being stretchered off with a nasty cut on the knee near the end, for which Dover captain John Keister received a red card, Chats will be hoping for quick recoveries before next weeks crucial game at home to Godalming Town.
 
Chatham Town: Whitehouse, Binks, King, Goodger, Groombridge (Larkin 67), Lyons, Smith (Best 82), Suter, Schulz, Denness (Phillips 15), Govey.  Sub: Winter-Nolan.