I came again to the Bauvill Stadium, for today’s game, attracted by Chatham Town’s seemingly unstoppable home form in the Isthmian League, this season. A rare defeat away, against second placed Beckenham Town, in midweek, still left Chatham top of the league, but ensured they really needed to secure a win in today’s game, for the three points.

Chatham Town’s free goal scoring has been led by Dan Bradshaw and Jack Evans, with fifteen goals each, ably supported by Emmanuel Oloyede with thirteen goals.

Three Bridges FC have struggled this season, sitting in fifteenth place, coming into the fixture.Their goals have come from Kieron Pamment with twelve goals and Noel Leighton with seven goals. Manager Jamie Crellin will have been hoping that his side could come to the Bauvill and break the incredible run of league home success that Chatham Town have enjoyed since 2021.

The game started with neither side giving much away and the first half hour was evenly fought. Both Chatham Town and Three Bridges had chances but the defences cancelled each other out.

On 30 minutes the ball found its way down to Chatham’s Daniel Thompson, in the Three Bridges area, who finished from close range, putting Chatham Town one nil ahead.

On the stroke of half time, a 20 yard effort from Matt Bodkin, flew past Mitch Bromage in the Three Bridges goal, to send Chatham Town, into the break, 2-0 up.

Within 4 minutes of the restart, Three Bridges had pulled a goal back, with a twenty five yard effort by Curtis Gayler, that caught both me filming and Ben Bridle-Card, in the Chatham Town goal, unawares!

In the 68th minute, Three Bridges drew level, when Curtis Gayler struck a free kick for his second wonder goal of the match, to tie the scores at 2-2.

With seventeen minutes still to go, a foul at a corner led to an instant dismissal, for Chatham Town’s Simon Cooper. Despite the impact of having ten men, the home side continued to press for a deciding goal, which also left Three Bridges looking dangerous on the counter attack.

The game saw Kevin Hake, Chatham Town’s manager, sent to the stand by the referee before full time. However at the final whistle it was a point shared, for both sides, with Three Bridges going as close as anyone in over a year to breaching Chatham Town’s unbeaten home record, in the league.

The crowd of 708, went away feeling they had seen a really entertaining match. Ramsgate’s win at home to Littlehampton, wasn’t quite enough to put them back on top of the league at full time, as Chatham stayed top, on goal difference.