Phoenix Sports 5-4 Chatham Town

An excellent Jeff Duah-Kessie hat-trick inspired the Phoenix first team to a decent win over SCEFL Premier Division side Chatham Town

Chatham came racing out of the traps and for the first 20 minutes Phoenix could not quite get to grip with their shape. The visitors took the lead early with a far post tap in by Byron Walker following a dangerous long throw that was knocked on at the near post.

Once the hosts had worked Chatham out they went on to dominate large periods of the game. The leveller came on the half hour mark when Jack Barry knocked in a Probets corner. The lead came soon after with the goal of the game with Duah-Kessie holding off his man before turning and shooting into the top corner from just outside the box. Just before the break Paul Vines equalised for the 'Chats' when finding space to turn and shoot from inside the box. HT 2-2

Chatham switched formation to a 3-5-2 to try and match their hosts for the second half but that move failed miserably and Phoenix capitalised immediately with Big Jeff scoring within the first minute. He then went on to get his hat-trick on the hour with more great work to beat his man and get his shot off. Excellent work from the tireless Alfie Aldridge then provided Tony Robinson with the opportunity to score which the wing-back gladly took.

With the score and 5-2 the Manager was able to rotate the squad and give everyone some minutes. Chatham seized that momentum change to pull two goals back but Phoenix were able to hold on to the win in what was a decent run-out for both sides.