Lottie Sharps thunderbolt sealed Chatham Town Women’s first National League win of the season as in stifling Sunday afternoon conditions, the Chats beat Luton Town Ladies. 

Played at Barton Rovers picturesque ground in the heart of Bedfordshire, the Chats edged a very tight first half kicking down the slope. They will have been frustrated with the display but did have Lucy Jones’s penalty to show for all their perspirations, given after Amelia Woodgate had been hauled to the ground.  

The home side levelled when a fine drive flew into the top corner just after the break with their first real attempt on goal before, just short of the hour, Sharp got on the end of a loose ball and hammered into the net from twenty-five, if not thirty yards. 

The game was played in glorious sunshine on a rock hard and difficult pitch making the consistent playing of good football tough which is probably why apart from the goals there were very few clear chances across the whole ninety minutes. 

Skipper Ellie Jeffkins had the first effort which home keeper Nicole Meiling spilled but fell on just as the Chats forwards closed in. The Woodgate sisters then combined brilliantly down the right and Amelia’s ball in was touched inches wide by Madison, who was flagged as offside in what must have been a tight decision.

The opening goal followed some good wing play from Sharp, who laid the ball into Amelia Woodgate, who as she tried to turn her defender was sent spinning to the ground and a penalty was given. Jones stepped up and as the keeper slightly moved to the left, the Chats full-back slammed the ball the opposite way. 

Amelia thought she’d doubled the lead with a shot just before the break but Meiling made a decent save with her left hand, and that save looked so important minutes into the second period when Chloe Logie scored a stunning equaliser which flew into the top corner of the Chats net. 

However just eight minutes later, out of absolutely nothing, the Chats retook the lead with a stunner of their own as a loose ball fell to Sharp, she arrowed her shot beyond the keeper and into the top corner. 

Despite having the slope down towards Evie Thorne-Ford’s goal, the Chats keeper didn’t really have a shot worthy of the name to save with Ellie Perkins again holding the backline together superbly and the magnificent Jas Auguste tireless in midfield covering every blade of grass on the pitch on a baking Sunday afternoon. 

The Chats could have won by more – Ote Charles, making her first appearance of the season off the bench, did have the ball in the net only to be denied by the lateness of late flags, before the same player raced onto a brilliant ball from the outside of Holly Turners right boot, and Charles’s drive was flicked over the bar by the fingertips Meiling. 

Three points on the road for the Chats and how they will be looking to repeat the feat next weekend just up the road at newly promoted Stevenage, whilst next up is a Wednesday night meeting with the junior side WSL team London City Lionesses in the Women’s National League Cup – kick off at the Bauvill is at 7.45. 

LUTON TOWN LADIES – Meiling, Vyse, Reed, Swares (Harris), Ward-Chambers (Dickens), Hesselden, Wilson, Logie, Herd (Banks), Tambula (Brooks), Lempik (O’Leary) 

Subs – Chellenbron, Milliken 

CHATHAM TOWN WOMEN – Thorne-Ford, O’Shea, Perkins, Washington, Jones, Keogh, Auguste, Jeffkins (Thompson), Madison Woodgate (Iton), Amelia Woodgate (Charles), Sharp (Turner) 

Subs – Baravik, Blackwell