Bowers & Pitsea 0 Carshalton Athletic 3 - Visitors close gap to play off places after goals from Bradford, Goather-Braithwaite & Smith help them to victory over struggling Bowers & Pitsea at Len Salmon Stadium

Isthmian League Premier Division, Saturday December 14th 

I popped over to a local game in mid December and The Len Salmon Stadium for Bowers & Pitsea's latest attempt to try and score a goal in recent times and see if they could net what would be a useful three points in their quest to try and enhance their chances of survival.

They had only managed to notch four wins in the league all season and were second bottom of the table and six point from safety at kick off, and if recent form was anything to go by then things did not look great, six defeats on the spin and failing to net in their last four encounters, that had to change before long if they were to stay in with a shot of getting out of the bottom four.

By contrast though their opponents, Carshalton Athletic, were on a really good run of form, one defeat in eleven and on an unbeaten run of eight in all competitions and in with a shot of closing the gap to the play off places to just a point if they could pick up all three points here and results went for them elsewhere, they started the day in 11th spot, four points off those places.

The form book suggested the visitors would be favourites, they had drawn a fair few of those games in that unbeaten run though, however after a fairly even first forty five minutes with not to much in the way of goalmouth action, the visitors pounced in first half stoppage time, when Tommy Bradford managed to shake off his marker before slotting across keeper David Hughes into the far corner to give Carshalton the edge going into the half time break.

It was certainly a good time to score for the visitors and a poor time to concede for the hosts, they continued to huff and puff in the second period but it was clear to see why they were struggling to find the net, and equally clear to see why they were struggling down towards the foot of the table, despite their hard working traits, which sadly isn't enough right now.

The visitors looked dangerous and were the ones mostly on the front foot in the second period, and it was no surprise when they did double their money in the 64th minute when Darnell Goather-Braithwaite ran onto a pass into the box to fire a lovely shot high into the roof of the net, and then fourteen minutes later they sealed the deal and the points when David Smith fired an effort in off the post, again giving keeper Hughes no chance.

A comprehensive win for Carshalton in the end, and they are now just one point off the play offs now and up to eighth after today's win, for Bowers, it's another defeat, their seventh loss in a row now and no goals in five straight games, things will have to improve soon if they are to have a shot at survival come the new year.

Full time Bowers & Pitsea 0 Carshalton Athletic 3

Right let's have a look at what else happened in the division today:-

Billericay Town 1 (Todd Miller 16)

Hastings United 1 (Davide Rodari 3)

Bognor Regis Town 2 (Tommy-Lee Higgs 67; Jasper Mather 69; Spencer Spurway sent off 90+4)

Whitehawk 3 (Charlie Walker 10(pen); Callum Barlow 49; Wasiri Williams 90+9)

Chatham Town 4 (Freddie Sears 18,54; Rowan Liburd 45; John Ufuah 75)

Folkestone Invicta 1 (Joseph Turner 42)

Cray Valley PM 5 (Sonny Black 9; Freddie Parker 25(pen),88,90+7, Denzel Gayle 90+5)

Wingate & Finchley 3 (Ogo Obi 41,81; Camilo Restrepo 54)

Dartford 2 (Callum Jones 22; Olly Box 72)

Dulwich Hamlet 2 (Luke Wanadio 45+3; Ralfi Hand 61)

Dover Athletic 0

Cray Wanderers 1 (Nyren Clunis 47)

Hashtag United 4 (Max Cornhill 4; Toby Aromolaran 13; Josh Osude 58; Luke May-Parrott 87)

Potters Bar Town 1 (Joe Re 90+4)

Hendon 0 

Canvey Island 1 (Chris Harris 61)

Horsham 3 (Chris Dickson 34(pen),49,69)

Cheshunt 1 (Vas Vasiliou 60)

Lewes 2 (Eddie Allsopp 34, Gianluca Botti 68)

Chichester City 3 (Jimmy Wild 10(pen); Isaac Bello 70; Lloyd Rowlatt 73)

And how does those results affect the table:-

Certainly some dramatic games in the league today, and plenty of goals too, leaders Dover Athletic lost only their third league game of the season but their lead was only cut to five points after Billericay Town failed to beat struggling Hastings United at home today.

Cray Valley PM netted two stoppage time goals to win a mad contest against play off hopefuls Wingate & Finchley to move level with second placed Billericay, Chatham Town climb into the play off places after they thrashed mid table Folkestone Invicta, Carshalton & Canvey climb into the top ten and move closer to those top five positions after victories today.

Down at the bottom, Whitehawk's dramatic 99th minute win in their huge clash down at the bottom against Bognor Regis Town sees them close the gap to safety and also sees the side from near Brighton jump a place too, meaning the bottom three now all lost this weekend as their gaps to safety increased after all the teams just above the drop zone picked up points.

Anyway that concludes today's blog, thanks for reading and hope your enjoyed reading as well.