The greyest of days, despite the festive spirit spreading, the closer to Christmas it gets, saw me visiting Bearsted FC of the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division. Otham sportsground is a great venue for football with a Bearsted FC club shop, a packed clubhouse and a decent sized grandstand and covered standing areas. The grass pitch looked in immaculate condition.

Bearsted have had a decent season so far, sitting in tenth place, with eight wins, four draws and five defeats in their opening seventeen matches. William Johnson-Cole (7 goals) and Oliver Freeman (6 goals) have ensured the goals kept on rolling for Bearsted and manager Kevin Stephens will be happy his side look secure in the table, albeit wishing they could go on a run which ensured they pushed the play off places.

Erith Town are very seriously pushing for the title this season, sitting just five points behind leaders Faversham Town, with a game in hand. They have been bouyed by the high scoring antics of Ollie Milton, Harry Taylor and James Dyer (All 10 goals) while Henry Arnold has also been chipping in (7 goals). Manager Adam Woodward has seen his side stay unbeaten in five league games and would have known he needed a win today to further close the gap on the league leaders.

The game opened with excitement when in the 6th minute Bearsted were 1-0 ahead, as Joel Wakefield created space to fire home in the Erith Town six yard box.

On 18 minutes Erith Town levelled at 1-1 when Ladic Melconian found himself through and calmly finished to the joy of his teammates and the noisy away support.

The remainder of the half saw both sides create chances but with few end results. Almost on the stroke of half time, Bearsted had a great opportunity to retake the lead when Will Johnson-Cole’s attempt was tipped around the post by Mackenzie Foley in the Erith Town goal. At the break the scores looked as if they could not be separated. Just as the referee put his whistle to his lips, Eniola Hassan, shooting from a position almost on the penalty spot, scored a fine goal for Bearsted, which caught my filming out, as well as the Erith Town defence, sending the home side in at half time with a 2-1 lead.

Within three minutes of the restart it was 2-2 when a poorly timed back pass allowed Harry Taylor in to score from close range for Erith Town. Bearsted fans feared the worst, as their team’s heads seemed to drop.

With seventeen minutes left in the game, and having absorbed a tidal wave of Erith Town pressure, a poorly timed challenge in the penalty area, presented Bearsted with a penalty chance. Will Johnson-Cole stepped up to calmly finish in the bottom left corner, putting the home side 3-2 ahead.

Bearsted bravely hung on, for a hard earned win that would give their season a lift and push them back towards the top six.

Erith Town never really fired up today and it’s hard to know why the talented Joe Chalker, who the last time I saw him caused such havoc in the forward line in the match at Snodland Town, wasn’t pushed up front today. Erith definitely need to unlock their confidence or they will drift out of the title race.