Chatham Town 0-2 Witham Town - I can't really find anything positive about game, admits Keith Levett

CHATHAM TOWN 0-2 WITHAM TOWN
Ryman League Division One North
Tuesday 12^th February 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

CHATHAM TOWN assistant manager Keith Levett described this as the worst performance that he has suffered during his time at the club.

Chatham Town went into the game on a three match unbeaten run, but they were flat as a pancake as last season’s Essex Senior League champions came away with a comfortable victory in front of only 84 fans at Maidstone Road.

The Essex side climbed up a couple of places into seventh-place in the Ryman League Division One North table with 41 points from 26 games, five points behind fifth-placed Aveley, leaving the hosts marooned in thirteenth-place with 31 points from 27 games.

Witham Town striker Rob Whitnell was twice left unmarked at the far post to head home two goals to give the visitors’ the easiest points of their campaign.

Chatham Town player-manager Kevin Watson handed Jonathan Fortune, 32, his second start following his release from League Two side Barnet on 7 January 2013, but the former Charlton Athletic defender – who has made 266 appearances as a professional footballer - failed to impress on his home debut playing as a makeshift striker alongside Austin Gacheru.

Levett was asked how a former Premier League footballer has ended up at Chatham Town.

He replied: ”Kevin Watson, the manager, knows him, goes back with the youth team days at Charlton.  He’s asked to come in and play some football and that’s where it is so we’re trying to accommodate him within our set-up. He’s a good lad.”

Levett admitted Chatham Town were poor from start to finish.

”Sometimes midweek games players’ come from work or whatever they’re doing and the big thing is that you turn up with the right mental attitude to the game and I think we didn’t really turn up,” he said.

”I think when you start a game that poorly and I think for me, although they’re not a particularly good side, one thing they did do today was they worked hard for each other. They battled, they scrapped, they won a lot of first and second balls and then consequently we haven’t got the ball and our all round quality of play wasn’t good enough.

”It’s just a combination of things. The way we started and the tempo was set from there and we never really recovered.

”I thought the last half-an-hour was possibly the worst we’ve played all season. We lost our shape in the end trying to chase a game individually instead of trying to do it as a group.

”We didn’t ask enough questions of their back four all night.  The quality of the balls in the box were poor and I think for the first time since I’ve been doing the job I can’t really find anything positive about the game. It was the worst performance we’ve had since we’ve been down here.”

Witham Town created the first opening inside the opening eight minutes when James Stevens played the ball inside to Danny Emmanuel and the right winger swept a low cross towards the far post to Danny Lopez, who floated the ball back to where it came from but Whitnell’s looping header was easily gathered by Chatham keeper Tim Roberts.

Chatham Town’s first chance arrived in the 12^th minute.
 
Garry Tilley played the ball to Gacheru’s feet before the former Guildford City striker sent a right-footed shot from an acute angle high over the bar, to the keeper’s left.

Witham Town’s next chance should have opened the scoring.

Right-back Scott Pethers wiped the ball on his white shirt before hurling a long throw into the box and Brad Stopher and Danny Emmanuel each got touches before the ball fell to striker Lewis Godbold, who stroked a right-footed angled shot across keeper Roberts from eight-yards, bobbling past the far post.

Visiting keeper Jason Baker had to make a comfortable collection in the 20^th minute.

Skipper Matt Solly and player-manager Watson linked up well in midfield before Fortune (who was wearing the number 5 shirt) floated over a cross from the right channel for Gacheru to glance his header straight at the keeper.

It was to be the front pairing’s only contribution as the door was shut in their faces by Stopher and Tom Devaux.

Witham Town went close before they deservedly opened the scoring.

Pethers played a free-kick inside to left-back Seb Murfet, who played the ball inside to midfield playmaker Stevens, whose ball into Godbold was flicked down to Murfet, and his right-footed shot from ten-yards forced Roberts into making a low save to his right.

Witham Town’s deserved opener finally arrived on the half-hour mark.

Emmanuel’s pace saw him win a foot race against Liam Hickey and Jamie Lawrence down the right before the ball ran loose to Stevens, who had time and space to deliver a cross in from the right towards the far post where Whitnell was left unmarked (thanks to poor defending from Kes Metitri and Ryan Laker) to send his stooping header from ten-yards bouncing across Roberts to nestle inside the bottom far corner.

Levett wanted to know what happened with his missing back four.

”There’s a number of things there,” he said.  “One is the ball in the box. We weren’t tight enough to the ball in the box. We’re ball watching for both goals. There wasn’t anyone near the guy who scored the goals.  That is unfortunately a lack of concentration and poor defending. You can’t say it any way than that.  The ball wasn’t the best but it was a ball in the box. It don’t have to be and it went to the back post and it was a free header on both occasions.

”We were the worst side we’ve been since I’ve been down here and I can’t quite put my finger on one thing because there were so many things that we’re bad.  It’s a number of factors tonight that made us put in a poor performance.”

Witham Town missed a decent chance to give them a commanding lead when Devaux came up from the back and planted his firm header narrowly wide of the left-post from eight-yards after Stevens’ corner from the right.

When asked what was said during the half-time interval Levett said: “We asked them to be a bit more composed on the ball, to keep the ball better and to ask them questions in terms of a turning ball so we could stretch them out a bit.

”We just didn’t go out there and implement what we were intending to do.  It was a number of factors that weren’t quite right for us tonight, without going into too much detail.”

But Chatham’s players ignored that advice as Witham Town scored their decisive second goal after only 139 seconds into the second half.

Emmanuel skipped past his marker to wriggle his way towards the by-line before floating over a cross towards the far post for the unmarked Whitnell, who buried his header into the top left-hand corner from eight-yards.

”It had no effect what we said to them at half-time.  We didn’t really have any impact on the players, which is equally frustrating from the management point of view,” added Levett.

The impressive Stevens was thwarted by a fine save from Roberts when he got his right-footed free-kick over the wall but the Chatham keeper dived to his right and did well to hold on to the ball.

Chatham boss Watson claimed the ball as he went in with a two-footed tackle on Stevens and received a talking too from referee Dave Bushell but Stevens got up to deliver the free-kick long into the Chatham box and Whitnell laid the ball off to Emmanuel whose right-footed angled drive bobbled across Roberts and past the far post.

Witham hit Chatham on the breakaway in the 51^st minute and Stevens’ shot was blocked and fell straight to Codbold, whose deflected shot from 25-yards was saved by Roberts high to his left.

Long-serving Tilley drove a left-footed shot from the edge of the box which flashed wide of Baker’s near post after the visiting keeper had initially punched away the midfielder’s inswinging corner at the halfway point.

Dominant Witham Town drew a double save from Roberts in the final eighteen minutes.

Pethers cross was cut back to Emmanuel, who took a touch and his right-footed deflected shot was blocked by Roberts’ outstretched legs.  The ball then looped dup and Lopez’s header back across was caught by an off-balanced Roberts.
 
Roberts made his best save of the night in the 80^th minute when man-of-the-match Stevens released substitute Emeka Onwubiko through on goal, who cut inside and his shot had bounced off Kes Metitri’s back.

The former Croydon and Erith Town stopper showed quick reactions, diving low to his right to make a smart save despite originally going in the opposite direction.

Levett added: ”Tim did some good things tonight and he equally did some bad things but that could be said of all of us including the management. As a group we just weren’t good enough tonight.”

A ball over the top of the Chatham defence left the home side flat-footed and Onwubiko’s right-footed volley from the edge of the box screamed wide past the diving keeper.

Roberts made a comfortable save to his right to thwart Onwubiko scoring from 20-yards at the death as Chatham Town’s faithful knew that their side were destined for a sorry defeat.

”I can’t remember a chance we’ve had,” admitted Levett.  “What we said we were going to do and what we actually did were two different things so what we spoke about before the game and what we said about at half-time we didn’t translate on the pitch.

”It’s just after the event so I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect on a lot of it but for me it comes down to the desire of our side was poor tonight and then we as a coaching and management team take responsibility for our side of it and we’ve asked the players after that to take responsibility for that performance as well because it’s not good enough on all sort of levels.

”I think one of the good things we’ve been doing since we’ve been down here is pass the ball but tonight we couldn’t pass the ball either so I can’t really say anything too positive about the game.”

Levett apologised to the home fans in the sparse crowd for their flat performance.

”Not much of an atmosphere but we can’t use that as an excuse for sure.  Those 84 that came tonight didn’t get their money’s worth let’s be honest so if we play like that we can’t expect to get big crowds but hopefully we can turn that around and put in a better performance.”

Chatham Town welcome second-from-bottom Ware to Maidstone Road on Saturday and a performance like tonight will be unacceptable against a side with only three league wins to their name this season.

Levett said: “We have to pick ourselves up and get ready for the next game. We can’t be too negative. We’ve just spoken to them and told them our opinion on that performance, but at the end of the day the games come thick and fast and we have to make sure we’re nice and ready and positive for the next game.”

Chatham Town: Tim Roberts, Ryan Laker, Liam Hickey (Steve Rothery 65), Matt Solly, Jonathan Fortune, Kes Metitri, Jamie Lawrence (Matt Newman 67), Kevin Watson, Austin Gacheru, Lewis Hamill, Garry Tilley.
Subs: Harry Smith, Ashley Sains

Booked:  Matt Solly 60, Matt Newman 90

Witham Town: Jason Baker, Scott Pethers, Seb Murfet, Brad Stopher, Tom Devaux, Paul White, Danny Emmanuel, James Stevens, Rob Whitnell (Emeka Inwubiko 69), Lewis Goddard (John Watson 90), Danny Lopez.
Subs: Jason Fontaine, Sam Taylor, Luke Banner.

Goals: Rob Whitnell 30, 48

Attendance: 84
Referee: Mr Dave Bushell (Tottenham, London N17)
Assistants: Mr Kevin Welsh (Sittingbourne) & Mr Lee Dyson (Gravesend)