Hornets foil Billericay’s top spot bid

Billericay Town, only a point behind leaders Dover Athletic at kick off, had the chance to go to the top of the table as they travelled to Horsham.  The Blues were nine unbeaten and looking for a fifth successive win, whilst the fifth place Hornets were ten points behind their visitors, but were looking for a sixth win in a row and had been particularly impressive on their own patch. 

The Blues defeated these opponents as recently as December 3rd, but they couldn’t find a way through the home defence in the first half, and Horsham also fired blanks as the first forty five minutes ended with defences firmly on top. The opening goal arrived just before the hour, and it went to the hosts, Lee Harding breaking the deadlock- and it turned out to be the only goal, to the delight of the Lardy Army, and, undoubtedly, of a large number of people on the Kent coast! 

Horsham are fifth, six points clear of the chasing pack. Billericay remain second, a point behind Dover but now having played a game more. 

Cray Valley PM saw a long unbeaten run crash to an end against Hashtag United last weekend, and slipped to fourth as a consequence. They hoped to quickly put that aberration behind them as they travelled to Bowers and Pitsea, but they didn’t have the best of starts, TQ Addy delighting the Len Salmon faithful by putting the hosts ahead after ten minutes. The Millers were level just after the half hour, Freddie Parker scoring for the eighteenth time this season, and that appeared to be that; and then, six minutes into added time, Parker was there once more to earn his side three points and send them back to third place. 

Three hundred and sixty four tried their best to keep warm. The home faithful won’t be warmed by a look at the table, which sees their side eight points from safety. 

Chatham Town and their visitors Wingate and Finchley had both lost their way recently. The Chats had lost their last three, each of those defeats to nil, whilst the Blues had slipped from the top five down to fourteenth after a run of eight matches without a win, including six defeats in their previous seven. The visitors took the lead on the quarter hour, Jaiden Drakes-Thomas with the opener, but the hosts were quickly level, courtesy of Freddie Sears fifteenth of the season. Immediately after the start of the second half Sears took his tally to sixteen, putting the Chats ahead for the first time, and the Chats number ten claimed a second match ball of the season when making it three-one with seventeen minutes left. 

The one thousand, two hundred and eighty seven who watched the match were, in the majority, left rather delighted- and their side climbed to sixth. Sears- pictured with his fan club, courtesy of the club- was unsurprisingly man of the match. 

Potters Bar Town, in tenth, travelled to take on the side three places and two points behind them, one-nil specialists Cray Wanderers. Wands had won five of their previous seven matches courtesy of a single goal, and we wondered, when Kenny Coker put them ahead in this one after just six minutes, whether the scoring would stop there- and it certainly did for the first half, one-nil the score at the break. The seven hundred and sixty one watching on didn’t see a goal in the next forty five minutes, either, so yet again, it finished one-nil to the Wanderers- who climb to ninth and do the double over their opponents.