After a wet and grey week, I thought that there could be no better way to brighten the weekend, than with a visit to the Bauvill Stadium to see an entertaining clash between two high flying sides in the entertaining Isthmian Premier League.

Both Chatham Town and Whitehawk FC were promoted only last season from the Isthmian League South East Division, so they will both feel pleased with a start to the 2023-2024 league campaign, which sees them sitting at the top of the Isthmian League Premier Division.

Kevin Hake’s Chatham Town side sat in fourth place coming into today’s game, with 24 points from their 13 matches. Goals have flowed for Chatham Town, with Jack Evans scoring highly for yet another season, with 6 goals, supported by Ashley Nzala with 6 and Jamie Yila with 8 goals this season. At times the defence has looked a little fragile, with home defeats to Cray Wanderers (1-5) and Cray Valley Paper Mills (0-2) shocking them, which Chatham will want to rectify if they are to catch the current runaway leaders, Hornchurch.

Whitehawk, managed by Shaun Saunders, sat in 6th place, with 20 points from 11 games, coming into the fixture. Goals have also been readily available with Charlie Walked scoring 10 goals, Charlie Lambert 7 goals and Kmran Kayani 7 goals, coming into the game. Whitehawk’s defeats have come on the road, with losses at Margate (1-2) and Worthing (1-2) spoiling an otherwise positive season.

The Bauvill has seen a steady increase in attendances this season, with a crowds consistently over 1200. Today was quieter with 907 in attendance, but the usually noisy crowd observed the Armistice Day minute’s silence impeccably.

The game started with both sides battling well and creating chances at each end. For Chatham Town, the mercurial Jack Evans, supported ably by Danny Kedwell and the ball winning skills of Jordi Robbins, was a constant threat.

Whitehawk also created chances when counter attacking, with Louis Collins and Charlie Lambert spearheading their attacks.

In the 35th minute a bad challenge by a Whitehawk player, resulted in an on pitch fracas, which led to yellow cards for Evans and Walker.

This incident seems to ignite the game, with Chatham Town going straight to the Whitehawk end and securing a first goal through a fine Simon Cooper finish.

Whitehawk then came back hard at Chatham Town for the remainder of the half, but the home side, driven by Kevin Hake’s passion from the touchline, held on despite heavy pressure, to go into the break with a slender lead.

The second half saw another even battle. David Aziaya, in the Chatham Town goal, made three good saves to keep the home side ahead. As the half wore on Chatham made substitutions, to keep their legs fresh and ensure they were able to keep a hungry Whitehawk FC attack at bay.

Both teams had late chances, but at full time it was the home team who took the three points to push themselves upto third in the league. Whitehawk slipped to eighth in the league but with games in hand will more than likely be challenging themselves for the play offs this season.