Stamford 1 Chatham Town 1

Chatham Town secured a good point away at promotion chasing Stamford on Saturday, against a side unbeaten at home in the league with a solid performance all round, writes Neil Sanders.

With Tom Binks missing due to work commitments, Matt Bourne moved across to left back and Steve Best dropped into the centre of defence, whilst Steve Searle and Rob Denness made their first starts after injury layoffs.

Facing a strong wind in the first half they were forced to soak up a fair bit of pressure from the home side.

Stamford came close to opening the scoring after 25 minutes when first Mark Angel, then Gareth Pritchard and Danny George all went close.

However, they did take the lead in the 31st minute when a break down the left resulted in Pritchard heading home Kevin Child's cross.

Stamford continued to push forward, using the wind to their advantage, but the Chats defence held firm to keep the deficit down to one at half time.

After the break it was Chatham's turn to get forward, although early on Kevin Fewell did have to make the save of the match to keep out a sharp shot from Graham Bowater.

But the equaliser came in the 58th minute. After a brief game of pin ball in the Stamford area, Luke Harvey drilled home from 12 yards through a crowd of players.

The three points were now there for the taking and the 200+ crowd were entertained as both sides created chances, with Denness for Chatham and Childs for Stamford both forcing saves from the respective keepers.

Chatham nearly snatched the points and Stamford's unbeaten home record in stoppage time, when Denness battled hard to get on the end of a through ball. His lob beat the keeper but unfortunately just cleared the crossbar as well.

A well deserved point against decent opposition, which should give Chatham confidence going into the Easter weekend local derbies with Dartford (away on Saturday) and at home to Sittingbourne on Easter Monday.

Chatham Town: Fewell, Mortimore, Bourne, Boyle, Best, Searle (Lyons 85), Smith, Brooks (Davie 90), Harvey, Denness, B.Walker (Akhazzan 75). Sub: Miles