A very cold January afternoon brought me back into Kent, to see one of the teams I had spent much of my time watching when I lived in Maidstone, Chatham Town, in their FA Trophy 4th Round fixture against Carlisle United of the National League.

Carlisle are managed by Mark Hughes, former Manchester City and Wales manager. They have had a very good season sitting in second place coming into the tie, with goals coming from Luke Armstrong (9 goals), Georgie Kelly (5 goals) and Junior Luamba (4 goals). This fixture involved a huge journey for the players, staff and fans of Carlisle United of around 335 miles and between 5 and 6 hours travel time.

Chatham Town also came into this game in second place in their league. Manager Kevin Hake has seen his team secure the closest competition to runaway leaders Folkestone Invicta in recent weeks. The Isthmian league sits two rungs below the National League but Hake knew he had goals in his side, with Tope Fadahunsi (13 goals), Ben Allen, Stanley Oldfield and Sam Sene-Richardson (all 8 goals) providing a rich attacking tapestry. A fine run has seen wins against Wimborne Town and Plymouth Parkway take Chatham to the fourth round. An underdogs’ win today would have had them just about dreaming of Wembley.

The game started with Carlisle controlling play but then after ten minutes the game flipped, when the battling of Chatham’s Jordy Robbins and the strength up front of Tope Fadahunsi, began to make inroads. With 25 minutes on the clock, Chatham won a free kick on the edge of the Carlisle United penalty area. Marty MacArthur stepped up and struck the ball beautifully, fooling Harry Lewis in the Carlisle goal, to make it 1-0 to the home team.

For the remainder of the half Chatham played as well as I have seen. Reece Butler, despite picking up a head wound early on, was dominant and the keeper, Nathan Harvey, balanced secure hands with an ability to organise and verbally shepherd, the back line. Carlisle United created very few chances and at the break it was actually more surprising that the Isthmian Premier League side hadn’t extended their lead.

As the second half started, the 1703 fans who had made the effort to come out to watch this tie, in the biting cold, were confident they’d continue to be warmed by the action on the pitch. Chatham Town continued to soak up and disrupt any pressure from the away team, with their midfield and defensive line pressing up onto the opposition. The impact of the strategy was to nullify and frustrate the Carlisle United efforts and as the half moved forward it was Chatham Town to go continued to look the most likely to score.

In the final 15 minutes Carlisle United came forward, with Cameron Harper going closest, sliding the ball narrowly wide when through one on one with the keeper.

However as the final whistle blew it was the Chatham players, fans and staff who celebrated a huge knockout victory, underlining the importance of the decision made to take the club full-time this season, and creating another milestone in what is turning into a really positive season for the Chats. This result reflects how far Chatham Town have come, which was a point underlined in the Kent Non-League podcast this week, where the chance of a win today for Chatham was discussed as a real possibility.

As the Carlisle United fans piled onto the coach for the long journey home, they would have been wondering how their team, on the back of such a successful league campaign could have performed so quietly at the Bauvill.