Chatham Town Women’s extraordinary season was extended by at least one more game on Tuesday night as they eased into the Semi Finals of the Combined Counties League Cup with a 5-1 win over Sutton United Women at Gander Green Lane.
Two and a half weeks after their National League season concluded, the Chats were back in action again and for the first half hour the “rustiness” showed.
But as soon as Karesha Iton turned home Kara Fordjour’s centre, there really was only going to be one winner. Amy Russ brilliantly drove home the second and it looked like the Chats would take a big advantage into the second period.
But with their first and only threat on goal in the first half, Hannah Baptiste beat keeper Abby Baravik to a free kick to half the Chats lead.
But once Iton had crashed home her second and the Chats’ third there was only one team Semi-Final and that was rubber stamped when Ellie Perkins forced the ball home from a corner, and Lottie Sharp’s late drive as the place in the last four for Keith Boanas’s side was sealed as the Chats look to defend another trophy they won last season.
The start of the game showed two sides who hadn’t played for a while at the end of a very long season with clear chances at a minimum.
Ciara Hynes, the irrepressible engine room of the Chats glanced a header wide before K’Shahaela Burch-Waldron was fortunate to see a miss cued header – from a Lucy jones corner – loop onto the roof of her own net.
Hynes then set the tireless Iton away down the right but unfortunately for Fordjour she couldn’t keep the shot down.
Fordjour and Iton then combined brilliantly but the ball into the box hit a horrible bobble and the unlucky Sharp blazed over.
That though proved to be the sighter as the next time Fordjour went down the right, Iton was on hand to bundle the ball over the line.
Within five minutes the Chats had the lead that their possession deserved as Russ drove home gloriously from twenty-five yards giving keeper Lizzy Knight no chance.
So comfortable were the Chats that Sutton pulling an underserved goal back before the break was a big shock as Baptiste was inexplicably allowed to beat keeper Baravik to the ball to loop home a header.
Some stern words may well have been uttered in the away dressing room as Chats came out of the blocks flying in the second period. Jess king smuggled the ball past Knight but defenders were on hand to clear; King again fired at the Sutton keeper after being found by Otesha Charles; Russ had a curling effort that didn’t dip enough; Maddy Wright fired over; Charles charged down a Knight clearance but the ball looped wide and from a delightful ball from Salena Sareen, Charles powerful downward header was well kept out by Knight.
It wasn’t completely one way traffic but nearly! There was an occasion where the Chats back line conceded a free kick twenty yards out which Ella Meehan thumped wide and there was also a chance when Burch-Waldren charged down a Baravik clearance and the ball flew across the face of the unguarded net, but they were the one threats the home side had in the half, but the visitors still needed to underline their authority and needed the third goal, which eventually arrived from Iton who creamed a ball from Lucy Jones into the top corner after a smart turn.
Charles was a yard wide after a threaded through ball from Russ and in their next attack, the game was definitely over as a contest as Perkins bundled the ball home from a Jones corner.
The icing was put on the win as Sharp cut in from the right and drove home a shot that did take a touch on its way goalwards, but the ball had beaten Knight and the goal was Sharp’s.
It could have been even more empathic as Charotte O’Sheas ball was inches away from Sharp and then with almost the final act, Amelia Woodgate on what had been a quiet night for the Chats top-scorer saw an effort hit the bar.
So, this incredible season for Boanas and his side continues at least one more week as they now welcome Wycombe Wanderers to the Bauvill next week for the semi-final with a place against AFC Portchester in the Final in the last week of May.
SUTTON UNITED WOMEN – Knight, Heavingham-Ford, Humphrey, Meehan, Modak, Langley, Allen, Clark, Baptiste, Chase, Burch-Waldren.
Rolling Subs from Warren, Hevesy, Spear, Gilbert-Lawal, Oliver.
CHATHAM TOWN WOMEN – Baravik, Auguste, Hynes, Perkins, Sharp, O’Shea, Sareen, Woodgate, Iton, Jones, Fordjour.
Rolling subs from Charles, Russ, Hunt, Wright, King.