Medway

Chatham Town  0  Haywards Heath Town  0

Isthmian League  – First Division South East

Admission / Programme - £10 / £2

There are certain parts of the UK that I have an inexplicable fascination for, a fascination borne out of the unknown.

One of those places is the area of Kent specifically known as the Medway towns.

I don’t get to Kent very often, in fact you can largely count my encounters of the place on one hand, bearing in mind I don’t class the area of Kent that sits inside the M25 as proper Kent, it’s London as far as I’m concerned!

Football wise I’ve been to Ebbsfleet, Dover, Gillingham, Maidstone and Whitstable, and apart from boarding the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone, that’s pretty much fifty years worth of experiences of the place.

But those Medway towns, namely Gillingham, Rochester and Chatham, I find them curious in the demographic, geographical, economic and indeed footballing sense. Yes, I went to Gillingham once on the quest for the 92, a Tuesday night League Cup tie against Middlesbrough, I was working in Dartford (not proper Kent) and staying right by the crossing so it was an easy run. Memories are a bit sketchy, and it was dark, so I couldn’t really see an awful lot. I did find a decent boozer near to the ground, which if I recall was significantly easier to find than a parking space.

Chatham Town got promoted to the Isthmian League at the end of last season after finishing runners-up to Sheppey United, and that marked a return after being relegated to the Southern Counties East League in 2017 (formerly the Kent League). Historically a Southern League club, Chatham’s relationship with the Isthmian League has been an interesting one, I recall a few years ago it was a somewhat moot point when Chatham were placed in the Northern Division as opposed to the Southern Division, which meant every away game involved a bridge, and a tunnel, and the queues that accompanied those journeys. I think footballing politics were at large, I won’t say any more, I have my sources!

But anyway, I’ve had my eye on Chatham, and from checking out images and reports, the noises I’d been hearing and the views of the ground suggested this was a place well worth visiting. Sat second in the league table, with crowds around the 700 mark, you sensed something was happening in this Medway town, at a time when the professional club up the road was fighting for it’s Football League survival.

Now, my old mate Derek is the font of all knowledge when it comes to Kent. In fact he’s lived pretty much everywhere in the Country, notwithstanding a period living in some Russian outpost where the locals kept brown bears for pets. Various jobs and indeed liaisons have seen him move about, with the South East of England being a particularly well trodden area. I took him to Maidstone United a few years ago and beforehand we had to go to Bearsted so he could have a look at the premises that used to house the off licence (he claims it was a high end wine shop but I’m not daft!) he ran.

So I had a little chat with Derek about Chatham, and of course, he was well acquainted with the area, the history lesson kind of followed (regarding the docks), along with his views on the local population. I was sold, and with a home game against Haywards Heath Town off of Sussex looming I decided to take a punt and head ‘darn sarth’ once again for a journey into the relatively unknown.

I was a tad perturbed just after leaving Belper when the sat nav suggested the journey was going to take close on four hours. Google Maps hadn’t said that twenty minutes before I set off, but then as I reached the M25 suddenly it all became clear. No, the bridge wasn’t shut, no, we didn’t have someone driving the wrong way round the motorway, what had actually happened was I’d got my technology set up to avoid tolls, so it was trying to send me down the M11, through the Blackwall Tunnel and down the A2. A couple of buttons later and I’d shaved half an hour off, reduced the journey by close on twenty miles, and I could chill a bit.

I rarely cross the QE2 Bridge in daylight, and with the sun shining it was nice to see the views along the Thames, and once I’d managed to avoid the carnage that was the queue to get to Bluewater Muppet Centre, it was a very steady drive down the A2 and M2 to the Medway Bridge which again offered lovely views up and down the estuary, with the docks in the distance.

In hindsight I really should have set off much earlier and gone into Rochester and taken a look around at the docks, the cathedral and indeed the castle, but it was not to be, so I headed further on and approached Chatham from the South, very quickly finding the ground and parking up in the street outside.

First impressions were indeed positive, while not a new ground by any stretch, it is very much in new clothes. Behind the goal on the Maidstone Road side is a huge two story building that houses the dressing rooms, a clubhouse and a hospitality area, while set in front of it is some steep terracing which is raised significantly up from pitch level, offering excellent views of the action.

Moving round clockwise you’ve then got hard standing leading down to a small area of covering that straddles the half way line, while behind the opposite goal is again hard standing but with a large new building in place which houses the clubs academy.

Finally on the side that is to the Southern point of the ground, is a large refurbished seated stand, with a tea bar, a club shop and an outside bar say adjacent to it. To be honest I was really impressed with what I found, so much so I felt I had to take advantage of the refreshment facilities and order myself a pint.

A crowd of just over 700 rocked up, and similar to my home town club, Belper Town, they have worked out how to get the punters to spend money! Everyone seemed to be wearing some sort of merchandise, and a large chunk of the spectators at some stage either had some food or a drink in their hand. The queues to get served were minimal largely due to a good number of staff on duty, and you didn’t have to wander far to be tempted to dip your hand into your pocket! In fact, if you were feeling healthy, they were giving away free apples!

The game finished 0-0, but it wasn’t a dull 0-0, we had plenty going on, but for Chatham, if I was being slightly critical they were perhaps a bit guilty of overplaying in the final third when a slightly more direct approach could have been more effective. Haywards Heath though given their lowly league placing put up a good fight, were well organised, and probably deserved the point.

As you’ve perhaps gathered, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Chatham, it didn’t disappoint at all, and as for scratching the curious itch that was the Medway towns, it’s a start, but I do still feel like I have bit of unfinished business.

Sittingbourne is in that vicinity isn’t it?