With boss Keith Boanas recovering at home from a knee operation, Chatham Town Women ran riot in their latest warm up game for the FA Women’s National league season that starts in two weeks’ time. 

With coach Jeff Allen at the helm, the Chats flew out of the blocks against Eastbourne Borough and were three ahead inside the opening four minutes with all three coming from Amelia Woodgate – two of which were set up by her twin sister Madison. 

Lottie Sharp then weighed in with a couple before Amelia Woodgate added to her personal tally to five of the seven at the break but in truth Eastbourne had their moments too and created a couple of chances well dealt with by the Chats trialist keeper.

But it was Eastbourne keeper Moule who was the outstanding keeper of the afternoon – hard to say when you concede double figures, but without the young stopper it would have been many more as the Chats were rampant.

The keeper did really well to deny Amelia Woodgate early on, she did really well to keep out a trialist’s drive from the edge of the box, before pulling off one of the saves of the season to deny Sharp her hat-trick just before the break – sadly for Moules and her defenders, Amelia Woodgate netted the rebound as the save alone didn’t deserve to concede. 

After the break, the hard-working Moules was again called into so much action – Moules produced yet another stunning tip over to deny Amelia Woodgate this time, but yet again luck went against the keeper as from Lucy Jones’s corner, Ellie Perkins powered home number eight. It was soon nine as Karesha Iton was able to stab the ball in from a good ball from new girl Megan Mcanisky.  

The scoring ended with arguably two of the softest penalties you’ll see all season – Jones hammering home the Chats’ tenth before the visitors finally got the goal that their efforts all afternoon deserved from the spot! 

In the coach’s absence, after the game Allen told us. “The result was fantastic! I told the girls in the huddle that there are things that we can definitely improve on – if we keep aiming ourselves to the higher level which is what we keep reminding them of in training every week, there are things that we can improve on.”

“But we will go away, look back at that and turning the needle, keep moving forward and ultimately if you look at the scoresheet – yes great for the forwards to get on the scoresheet and get some confidence behind them, but there are things that we can definitely improve on for sure!” 

“We made almost too good of a start – three up in three minutes scoring with our first three shots! One of the things that we tried to motivate the players was to stay on their good habits as it’s so easy to relax when you get a start like that!”

“Yes, its pre-season, but there is also a much bigger goal to what we are trying to do going into the League campaign in a couple of weeks’ time!” 

“We didn’t have it all our own way and full credit to them – they tried to do it the right way and I said to them that they were a decent set-up and didn’t stop trying to be fair for the whole game; they were fit, and they gave us a good, tough battle!” 

The Chats conclude their pre-season next Sunday – August 9th – when they welcome Brentford Women (who narrowly missed promotion into the Chats’ League last season) and the game with start at 2.00pm.