A strange combination of events today brought me to this fixture, seeing Three Bridges FC play at home on Chatham Town’s Bauvill Stadium, some 45 miles, by road, away from their own home stadium.

To begin with Storm Darragh, which had closed airports in Wales and the west of England, cancelled today’s Merseyside Derby and ripped trees down and taken roofs off, had caused a wide cancellation of fixtures across the region, forcing me to change my earlier plans.

The reason I was able to watch Three Bridges FC, less than 8 miles from home, is because they are still in the process of installing their own 3G pitch, so in the meantime, had agreed to groundshare with Chatham Town. This has reduced their crowds and the stormy weather also further dampened the attendance today.

Three Bridges FC have had a tricky start to the season, sitting today in eighteenth place, just one place above today’s opponents in the drop zone. Three Bridges FC’s goals have come from Reece Hallard (11 goals), Archie Burnett (4 goals), Nodirbeck Bobomurodov, Ben Holden, Kevin Rivera and Elliot Romain (all 3 goals). Manager Jamie Crellin would have been hoping his side could take the points today to put a sizeable gap between themselves and the relegation zone, in a real six pointer.

Hythe Town, managed by Nick Davis, would have come in to today’s fixture knowing they needed desperately to take an opportunity to pull themselves out of the relegation places.

Goals haven’t flowed easily for Hythe Town, with Ellis Brown (4 goals), Anthony Adesite, Lex Allan and Bruno Tavares (all 3 goals) top scoring. Defensively Hythe Town have had some big capitulations, with heavy losses this season, 2-4 to Sevenoaks, 0-6 to Sittingbourne FC and 0-5 to Erith Town. Today they would have known how crucial good defensive play would be, in the battle to secure a platform for stealing away with all three points.

The game opened evenly, but swung in favour of the home team as early as the 13th minute. Three Bridges FC went ahead when Reece Hallard cut in from the left, before hitting a twenty yard shot that curled past Coleman in the Hythe Town goal, to put the home team 1-0 ahead.

The lack of confidence in the Hythe Town players was evident when, just two minutes later, the deficit was doubled to 2-0 when Three Bridges FC’s captain, Billy Irving, met a cross with a firm downward header, meeting little resistance as it nestled into the net.

In the 37th minute Hythe Town’s defensive frailties from corners became evident again. Reece Hallard scored for Three Bridges, stabbing home in space that shouldn’t have existed, at the near post, to complete a brace and put his team 3-0 ahead.

As the sides went in at half time, it felt very much as if Hythe Town had given up already. Manager Nick Davis would certainly have required a change in approach for the second half.

The second half felt much more even, but Hythe Town still had to weather some storms, with their keeper providing some heroics to prevent further scores.

At full time the 62 fans in attendance had seen a game of two halves, with a Hythe Town capitulation in the first half but a spirited fight back in the second, to ensure the result remained 3-0 to the home side. For the Three Bridges FC fans however, the result had never been in doubt and they moved four points clear of the relegation places deservedly, as a return to the Jubilee Stadium, looms large, to provide hope into the festive period.