Burgess Hill Town 2-1 Chatham Town

The first half was very open and the scoreline could easily have been a couple of goals in Chatham’s favour at the break, writes Neil Sanders.

However, they found themselves behind after six minutes when Lloyd Skinner collected the ball from a loose header and ran to slot home from 15 yards.

Shane Suter was involved throughout and got on the end of a 9^th minute free kick, only to see his volley come back off the far post. He then had an altercation with Burgess Hill’s Lloyd Cotton but both players escaped without a card.

The home side were fortunate to see Mark Pulling only receive a yellow card, when he pulled down Sam Phillips, as he was about to run clear. From the resulting free kick Chats had a strong shout for a penalty when a hand appeared to be raised to block the shot.

Lady luck was clearly not shining on Chatham again in the 35^th minute. Darren Smith rattled the woodwork with a 30 yard shot and when the rebound was played back across the goalmouth by Suter, Gavin Schulz slid the ball in at the far post, only to see a very late offside flag rule the goal out.

Chats had the ball in the net again but this time it was ruled out for a foul on the keeper. A 25 yarder from Suter was kept out by a flying save from home keeper Andre Foster and at the other end John Whitehouse did well to keep out Dan Turner’s effort.

Chatham eventually had to wait until the hour mark for their equaliser. Another good run from Suter sent him clear on the left and his cross was headed home by Darren Smith.

After that it was the home side’s turn to hit the woodwork when Turner’s shot came back off the far post.

Burgess Hill’s winner came in the 81^st minute when Shaun Grigg headed back across goal, for top scorer Ashley Jarvis to nod home from close range.

Chatham Town boss Phil Miles was then dismissed from the touchline with five minutes left and their last chance of getting a point was from an attempted clearance by a defender, which required a good low save from Foster.

Chatham welcome Whyteleafe (Tuesday night) and Kent rivals Cray Wanderers (Saturday) to Maidstone Road this week looking to improve on their position in the bottom four in the Ryman League Division One South table.

Chatham Town: Whitehouse, King, Binks, Mortimore, Goodger, Best, Smith, Phillips (Walker 52). Schulz, Denness, Sutter (Govey 82). Sub: McKenna