Fleet follow up the 6-2 win at Punjab United with another away trip, this time to Medway to take on Chatham Town.
Like Punjab, Chatham play their football in the SCEFL Premier Division. Indeed the two clubs have played each other in between their separate meetings with the Fleet, Chatham winning 7-3 at home last Saturday.
Managed by former Gravesend & Northfleet favourite Scott Lindsey, who played at Stonebridge Road from 1999-2001, Chatham have assembled a very capable squad at the Bauvill Stadium with recognisable names from Fleet’s National League past.
The home squad includes the likes of former Fleet loanee and Welling/Dartford hotshot Andy Pugh, together with Ryan Hayes (Dartford), Luke Rooney (Gillingham, Ebbsfleet), Jack Evans (Eastbourne Borough), Matt Bodkin (Welling) and prolific former Sheppey United frontman Dan Bradshaw. Josh Strouts, son of former Fleet midfielder Jimmy, may also feature.
Chatham have had a busy pre-season period already. Other than Saturday’s win over Punjab, they lost 2-0 at Folkestone Invicta last night and were also on the wrong end of a 2-1 result at home to Cray Wanderers. Before that, there was a 3-2 win over a young Gillingham XI and the club also triumphed over Sheppey, Lordswood, Rochester United and Punjab again in an early summer tournament.
The Bauvill Stadium (directions here) on Maidstone Road has a capacity of 5,000, their home since way back in 1889 when the club reached an FA Cup quarter-final against West Bromwich Albion, having beaten Nottingham Forest! The ground also boasts a 3G surface.
Fleet fans are reminded that the kick-off is now 7.30pm, having moved forward half an hour from the originally scheduled time when the fixture was first announced.
