FA Trophy heroes Chatham Town renew Isthmian Premier Division title chase away at Canvey Island as runaway leaders Folkestone Invicta drop points

Chatham Town return to league action tonight as they look to make up some ground on the league leaders.

Kevin Hake’s men pulled off a shock win over Carlisle United in the FA Trophy on Saturday and an opportunity to chase down the Isthmian Premier Division leaders has also opened up.

Chatham recently ended Folkestone’s impressive 12-game winning run - with a 2-1 victory at the Bauvill Stadium on January 3 - and since then Invicta were beaten 1-0 by Aveley and on Saturday were held to a goalless draw by Carshalton.

Hake’s men still have plenty to do if they want to catch the runaway leaders - with 15 points the gap - but they have three games in hand and one of them comes tonight at Canvey Island.

“Results have gone for us in recent weeks,” said manager Kevin Hale.

“We don’t get too high, or too low, but if there's an opening, hopefully we'll look to crack on in there and hopefully give the club its most unbelievable season since 1882. That's the dream.”

Chatham’s boss will be mindful of the effort his team put in at the weekend as they chase success on multiple fronts.

Isthmian Premier Division top six;

The draw has been made for the FA Trophy fifth round and @ChathamTownFC will be at home again...
More here: https://t.co/lYJqDCw3AO pic.twitter.com/KYu9Zsn8cU

Runs in the FA Cup and FA Trophy have been coupled with a promotion chase.

Hake said: “We've gone in for it in all competitions, which is something I'm conscious of.

“We haven't had a great FA Cup run up until this year. We haven't had a good Trophy or Vase run, and I wanted to give that to the fans, as well as saying, ‘Do you know what, we're going to still go for the title as well’.

“We're not getting carried away with anything but this is what football is all