Tuesday 29 September 2009

Blogger missing in action... Chatham down to 5th.

Evening all. Or morning, depending on when you're reading this. Massive apologies for the down time. This blog started life at a time when I foolishly thought I had more spare time on my hands than I had imagined I would have. Turns out time is a slightly more finite commodity than I had previously imagined.

That very same commodity, old father time, is also part and parcel of the reason I simply can't make as many games as I had planned. I'll keep the personal side of things out of here - after all, its a blog about Chatham Town FC, not the author - but I feel the need to offer my sincere apologies for the lack of updates.

Since my last post, we were beaten 2-1 at Merstham on Saturday, meaning they've leapfrogged us to third in the league, pushing us down to fifth. I have to admit to an air of despondency when I saw that result come in, but, on reflection this season is still, at this admittedly very early stage, far beyond what we've become used to over recent seasons.

Last term, our one and only in the Ryman One North, a very misplaced air of optimism pervaded the club and its supporters. Mistakenly believing it to be an easier league, we spent the early months looking very much like relegation certainties. A trip to Norton Sports for a competitive fixture clearly did not fit into the club's long term plans, and the arrival of both Matt Longhurst and Alex O'Brien should, in my opinion, be credited with the turnaround in fortunes.

It was a shock when Longhurst left us - on good terms it must be said - as many had felt he was the man to take us forward when Steve Binks moved on. But it wasn't to be; My immediate response was that the side that it appeared he had brokered would collapse without him, but in truth it became stronger. Lee Barnett began to stand out more, and his growth in confidence as a player was confounded when AOB Big Don Logan joined us, on a temporary basis towards the end of the season.

I think the current positivity can be attributed to the fact that we are unbeaten at TOSC since February this year. Given a four month downtime in the Isthmian, that's not as long ago as it seems, but we've not been a club to be spoilt with things such as form and results for many moons. To go 12 unbeaten at the season's end was to me a beautiful reward for a season that had seen early calamitous performances (the failure to clear our box in injury time at a bitterly cold, windswept athletics stadium in East London for Waltham Forest away for example) turn to our best league finish in 23 years. Personally, the away performance at Ware was the pinnacle of what this club, this side, can achieve. We never gave up. 1-0 down, we dominated from the back to the front. A unit. United. Pushing together, every man standing up. Lee Barnett's performance in that game, marshaling the front line (yes, marshaling - forwards simply are not supposed to do that), was the most assured and noteworthy individual display I've seen at this level ever. It was the first game for ages he hadn't scored in. And he still was man of the match. Its no surprise with hindsight that at that time, he was being scouted by league clubs again. And despite being the best player on the pitch that day, by some distance, the whole team performed superbly. It remains to my amazement that we could ever keep him.

But keep him we did. AOB's first magic trick. AOB's second magic trick - contracting Matt Solly. Solly. Still so young and with so much to give the game - he's what - 22, 23? He never says die, he plays one killer ball per game minimum, and his performances in midfield last season always threatened to turn games or control them - even when we were, lets face it, crap.

And then AOB performed his prestige trick. The return of the Cass. Cassback. Kiss my face. No more needed to be said.

AOB's first managerial season is shaping up, thus far, nicely. Yes, its going to take time for certain elements to bed in. He openly admits on yourmedway this week that Cass's natural game is taking a backseat for the team's playing style. We need to work on that. As I've said before, Cass is a fox in the box, cartarista of a striker. Long balls to run onto will not work. We need crosses and 1-2s. But its coming.

This Saturday sees a visit of Canvey Island's second team Concord Rangers, think Leysdown to Sheppey United 1984 to put it into a kentish context, in the FA Trophy. It'll be a tough game. Last time we met, on the Isle of Quality Holidays (TM) we were beaten 5-0, in what was Lee Barnett's debut. They should note, things are very different now. I just hope they are differnt too - that they have a bit more class than when they last visited us. We were one of their first away games of their inaugural season in the Ryman league. One of their officials behaved like they were at a park game - specifically the then kit man, who's name I can't recall, who was an ex player, retired through injury. It was hard not to notice his behaviour. Towards the end of the second half, he walked from behind the home dugout, fouly abusing the home bench with language not uncommon in Chatham, but not acceptable from a club official. One of the Concord management team also gave the best comment in relation to a frankly evil challenge by Simon Austin as they came off at half time - paraphrasing, it was along the lines of "don't care if you get sent off, just make sure you hurt him". Nice people Concord Rangers. Lets hope they've grown up.

Sadly, again I won't be there - my reports of wit and whimsy are becoming a distant memory, I know. But normal service will be resumed soonish. I promise.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Chats reach heady heights of 4th in league

Chatham Town beat Met Police 3-1 tonight, to go 4th in the league, four points adrift of leaders Folkestone. Full comment and unbridled, misplaced excitement to follow in due course...

Come on you Chats!!

Medway News.

Medway's finest free paper (also sold for 45p in shops, despite coming through your door for free) did me the great honour a few weeks ago of borrowing heavily from my report on the Horsham YMCA match, and in two instances, copying and pasting my work. I penned a long and well thought out argument about this, which I have held pending their next move. The posting that will never appear was quite sympathetic, referring to the new culture of slacker hacks chained to keyboards, fed stories from news agencies and newswire, starved of imagination and the time to report rather than regurgitate. But I chose not to post this.

I chose to wait and see what would happen. Humorously, it would appear that my post of the 26th August, where I comically referred to such a culture before spewing out my own mixed grill of reportage on the Croydon game, did enough to put them off. I joked about other people stealing other writers' work. At this point, I had no idea what the News had done - it wasn't published until the 27th. Since then, the illustrious News hasn't given one column inch to the Chats. I'd like to think that this is in no part due to my comments. I'm completely independent of the club, so I don't see why they should suffer over a potential misunderstanding between the News and this blog.

I'm not a journo by trade. I don't aspire to be. This blog is for the sake of independent thought on all things Chatham Town and non league, and probably in time, anything else that takes my fancy, perhaps even cakes. But please don't copy my work and pass it off. The very idea of this blog's independence is undermined by such actions.

Thank you.

"Always go one more round"

Says AOB, often, perhaps too often, in his programme notes.

We failed to go one more round in the cup - for those of you who don't know, Chatham crashed out at Walton last Wednesday, a 2-1 defeat after extra time against ten men, having been leading with just minutes of normal time remaining. Worryingly, it looked like it might have been our year, but Chatham have failed to the achieve relative glory of playing three qualifiers in the World's Greatest Competition Ever Apparently (TM) since 1995. Any suspicion that we may have developed a cup pedigree was put to bed in Walton as quickly and depressingly as a teenage misery returning from said Hop in the eighties, the sound of Morrissey ringing in their ears, the promises of riches from Jonathon King resounding as their head hits the pillow...

In short, we bowed out. Again. Always next year, blah blah blah.... well, yes, there is always next year, but lets face it, if we can get past two games in the completion, not including replays, it'll be something of a miracle. Given that we need to win through seven rounds to even begin to think if such a dream tie as Middlesbrough at home, then.... lets just concentrate on the league shall we?

On the subject of the league, I missed what is called in layman's terms, a stonebonker classic on Saturday. To put you in the picture, on top of not being able to go to pretty much any away games this year, I'm also in unenviable position of missing home games for the next few weeks. I'm not in prison or anything untoward, or seriously ill, just seriously inconvenienced by the fixture catalogue for the coming month. I'll of course continue to pass judgement, rumour and scorn / love (delete as appropriate) on all things Chatham Town - it'll just carry less weight... Still, at least the Medway News will have an excuse not to do any Chatham Town news. Funny thing is they've not even covered an inch on the club since the famous "similar" news story they ran the other week. See my next post for more info...

Moving back to Saturday, Chatham found themselves at home in the league, tail firmly between shamed and tired cup tie legs, for the visit of one of my favourite Isthmian clubs, Leatherhead. AOB rang some changes. Raymone Powell started up front in place of Ascheri, and Tommy Binks came back to the defence. As I said, I wasn't there, but I love the idea of Razor playing up front. He came off the bench in the PSF against Margate and was terrifying in all the right ways (not an Ian Brady way), and I've felt that he could be the missing bite in our front line. So, according to the resurgent John Crow on the official site, it would prove I was right - Powell made a nusiance of himself so much that Lee Barnett scored twice, and Powell bagged one himself. All the drama came in the game's closing moments... 3-1 up on 85, Chatham won a penalty. Lee Barnett, a man who you do not want to face from the spot, steps up to seal the victory and his first hat-trick in Chatham colours. Scuffs it. Saved. Heads drop, Leatherhead steal one back on 86. And another on 88. 3-3. How did that happen... Always go one extra round. Chatham corner on 89. Ben Payne rises... Ben Payne connects... Ben Payne scores... 4-3 Chatham. Five minutes injury time and Michael Dodsworth comes off the bench, and it stays 4-3. Dodsworth the hero... maybe not, but lets give him a mention anyway. But in short, again, we won a game with a late winner. Without such winners, we'd be bottom. Instead we're seventh - with a game in hand (playing as I write at home to Met Police - if we win, we could go fifth).

AOB is still not happy - we're too leaky. My predictions of a rollercoaster season and other cliches appear to be becoming true. But its bloody exciting, isn't it?

Tuesday 15 September 2009

All the kids want to get backstage, at the Walton Hop...

...get a whisky and coke, no need to prove their age, at the Walton Hop."

Or so said Walton on Thames' least famous "famous" resident, Luke Haines, on his 2006 LP Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop, in his song The Walton Hop, a tribute to the town's now defunct youth disco of the same name, an infamous place of wrongfulness and ruined lives, the hunting ground of Jonathan King and Co.

Paedophiles aside, Chatham Town face Walton's less famous but more well atoned residents, the Walton Casuals tomorrow night in the replay of their FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie. Illness, rather fortunately it transpired, ruled me out of Saturday's first attempt at TOSC, the game being described by all concerned as poor. The highlights are on the FA's official website. And to be frank, its a bit embarrassing. Both sides are capable of much better, and AOB rightly blames a hard pitch on a hot day. The good news is we kept a clean sheet for the first time this season, and we need to get the positivity going. take the clean sheet to Walton, come back with it, and lets go on another 12 game run. We can do it, and if we do a 12 game run now, we're in the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, and its Leeds United or Southampton at home. The dream is there.

Tomorrow will hopefully be very much different. The Waterside Stadium is a bleak ground, or at least it was last time I went there and Ross Finn (where is he?) scored a screamer, starting his run at the halfway line before burying it in the top corner. Its the sort of ground that wind howls across, where kids congregate outside (posh kids mind you), and the noise of the nearby leisure centre outdoes the crowd. Chatham will need their wits very much about them. If it does all go wrong though, there's a cracking pub a five minute walk up the Thames called The Weir Hotel. I don't wish to run the ground down - it is no Thamesmead Town; its got the best riverside location I've ever seen a match at - houses opposite sell for over £2million and they're small - but the location isn't reflected in the stadium itself - I came away feeling like I'd seen a game at Strood Sports Centre. By the by really.

Mike Green, the Chats' new programme editor is reporting on this one for Kentishfootball tomorrow, so we can get a decent idea of what went on etc on Thursday. For those of you, like me, unable to attend, live scores should be available on http://nln24.com/live/vidiprinter, a superb service now up and running, that works on iPhones apparently.

Back to the game, its vital we grind out a result tomorrow night. We've got a great chance of progressing and making a name for ourselves this year - the prize is yet again County League (one below us) opposition in the form of the winners of Selsey vs Deal Town, at home. The dream is there. Always go one extra round, as the big man Don Logan says.

Monday 7 September 2009

In other news

Trawling through the internet, I found Chatsnap's photostream on the Flickr. Amongst the usual, This Sporting Life grit of action at the Theatre of Slapstick Comedy, there are some excellent photographs. Included among these, is, rather worryingly, one taken of the Medway from Fort Pitt that, if it had been taken a few years ago, would have actually construed a stalking exercise as it would actually be of my old flat.

Snappy's photos can be found here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37868543@N02/

Saturday 5 September 2009

Worthing 2 - 0 Chatham

Again, an away match, and I didn't go. No report on the official site yet (actually, no reports for our last two games on the official site yet - apparently all roads end at Horsham YMCA), and no report yet on the Worthing site, but we were beaten two goals to nil where the road meets the sea, and now find ourselves back in the familiar mid table mediocrity to which we have been accustomed over the years, in thirteenth place on seven points.

The new Ryman Leage website will feature a team list at some point, and it will be interesting to see. The Worthing forum, whilst not critical of us, seems confused by our lack of firepower. Perhaps a bad day at the office for the lads, but the suggestion that we did not force one save from Worthing's keeper sounds worrying. We did apparently make a good fist of making a match of it for the first twenty minutes, but then switched off, making a boring encounter for all.

Their goals were - according to the wonders of second hand knowledge, in turn, a screamer, and a howler, where our defence ball watched until such point it crossed the line. Such imagery makes me think of Matchday 2 on the Spectrum or C64 back in the day - I can see various Chats players running in the wrong direction and doing that strange thing the sprites did on said computer game when confronted with another sprite - to just keep moving backward and forward. Anyway, that's by the by really. We were beaten, and apparently didn't turn up. It'll be interesting to see Don Logan's opinion if that is indeed the case, because he has previously stated in programme notes that he doesn't do players that only turn up for the big games. Money and mouth time perhaps, particularly given next weeks big stakes FA Cup 1st Qualifying round tie with Walton Hop Casuals. A win could potentially set us up with a lucrative tie against Conference South opposition, but we have a strange record against Walton Casuals over recent seasons, having taken it in turns to hand out 4-0 drubbings to each other on both of their last two visits to the Theatre of Slapstick Comedy. I can't help but think given the hard work we made of lower league opponents Eastbourne United over two matches in the last week, that we (1) need a rest, and a week until the next game is a good thing and (2) we need to pick things up a gear. Has the victory over Croydon got to our heads? Are all the pre-season expectations and hype (which I have happily gone along with myself, rather guiltily) done for us? Let us not forget, if it were not for two injury time winners, we would now be 19th in the league...

Come on Chatham - stop pratting about at the back of the class. You may be a gifted child, but the silliness is doing you no favours. Start working please.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Eastbourne United Association 1 - 2 Chatham Town (AET) FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay

Just a very quick posting, again, an away game so I wasn't present, but Chatham Town stumbled in to the 1st Round Qualifying of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win away to "plucky" Sussex League Eastbourne United Association last night.

They will face fellow Ryman 1 South side Walton Casuals at the Theatre of Slapstick Comedy on Saturday 12th September, the prize being a spot in the next round, and the possibility of being drawn against a Blue Square South side. Some potential glamour ties spring to mind, perhaps a trip to either Weymouth or Weston Super Mare, but lets just get through the next round first.

Goals last night were from Jim Lyons, who opened the scoring before we were pegged back, and an extra time winner from Beast Barnett.

Well done all.

Normal service to be resumed at some time (as in longer reports - but as I said, I didn't go - hopefully, not enough here for anyone else to steal).