Chatham Town Women held to goalless draw by Actonians to finish the year second in National League South East

Chatham Town Women missed the chance to end the year top of the National League South East table.

Manager Keith Boanas was frustrated at his side’s lack of creative spark in Sunday’s game with Actonians that ended goalless.

It was their last match of 2024, ending it one point away from league leaders Real Bedford in second place with half of their games played.

For Boanas, who was looking to avenge two 1-0 defeats in previous league and cup games, it felt like a missed opportunity.

Reflecting on the 0-0 draw, the Chats boss said: “I am not happy with the point - far from it. They were weaker on paper than they were in the previous two games. We should have beaten them then.

“That’s now 270 minutes against them and we haven’t scored a goal.

“They are a deep-defending side with a very good centre-back but we didn’t even create chances and I think they had a stand-in goalkeeper as well.

“It was disappointing in the attacking third - happy defensively - but I think had we still been playing now we wouldn’t have scored.

“They are our bogey side, for whatever reason. I have to look at the whys and wherefores. We were missing natural number nines in Jess King and Millie Rayner through injury and Darcy Wells was unavailable, they were big misses.

“Darcy’s energy in midfield had been the highlight for the past few games and Jess and Millie are natural goalscorers.”

The game was held up towards the end of the first half because of an injury to the referee.

Boanas said: “Someone else came in from nearby and the game was delayed for 20 minutes. Once it restarted they called for half-time just five minutes later! That didn’t help with momentum, but it’s not really an excuse.

“We should have been scoring three or four goals against