Chatham Town Women play London Bees in a crucial National League Division 1 South East match at the Bauvill Stadium on Sunday

Chatham Town Women return to league action this Sunday and a massive home game against London Bees which they can’t afford to lose.

A 3-1 defeat at Milton Keynes Dons last time out leaves their promotion hopes hanging by a thread.

Fulham lead the race for the one automatic place in National League Division 1 South East, while Chats are among a group hoping to chase down a play-off runners-up spot.

With four defeats this season, it’s already a big ask for Chatham, and on Sunday they host a team one place above them in the table.

“We just don’t want to lose any more league games,” said Chatham manager Keith Boanas.

“I think we’ve let ourselves down a little bit in that area. It’s about keeping the winning momentum going.

“This game is massive, absolutely massive.”

Chats are seven points behind the Bees but have two games in hand. Norwich and Fulham are the top two and are even further in front.

Chatham’s win over York City in the FA Women’s Cup fourth round earned them a tie against WSL 2 side Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Sunday, February 22.

Boanas will be picking his team for that match on current performances.

He said: “They’ve got a carrot to play - they’re all going to want to play in the next round.

“So, performances at training, performances in the other games will count towards that.

“I made a lot of the decisions [last Sunday] based on recent performances, where I wasn’t overly happy, but also their efforts in training. A couple of them were really unlucky not to start.”

Last weekend’s cup win was watched by close to 1,700 fans and Boanas would love to see some of those again this weekend.

He said: “We broke some records with the crowd and that’s down to the effort that everyone has made.

“Hopefully, it won’t