Ambers win looks to doom Margate- and gives Billericay hope

Cheshunt welcomed Horsham to North London last night with both sides rather desperate for victory. The hosting Ambers had only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom four, but they also had a game in hand over fourth bottom Margate; whilst the visiting Hornets needed just one point to guarantee a play off spot. We expected the proceedings to be rather tense, and indeed they were, with just a single goal- but it was a goal that delivered Amber delight!

These two sides have never served up a goalfest- their previous six meetings had not seen a margin of victory higher than two-nil- so it was perhaps fitting that the decisive goal was served up by a defender. Chevron McLean, a promotion winner with the Ambers two years ago, returned to the club in January and last night scored for the first time since his latest debut. It may be claimed that his effort was actually a cross, but if he’d been saving it up he couldn’t have picked a better time- and the home fans wouldn’t have cared had it been a ricochet off the goalkeepers backside, as it looks to have retained their Premier Division status. The Hornets went down to ten men deep in added time at the end of the match, Lee Harding dismissed.

Margate aren't confirmed as mathematically relegated, but they are three points behind the Ambers with one match left- which means that they need to win, see Cheshunt lose at Hashtag United, and overturn a goal difference that sees them fourteen goals worse off. That would look rather unlikely even if Gate weren’t scheduled to travel to sixth place Billericay Town, who suddenly have hope of that sixth place turning to fifth, or even fourth.

Horsham’s defeat leaves them- and fourth place Wingate and Finchley- tied on seventy three points. Three points further back, and with a significantly better goal difference, are Billericay Town- which means that Billericay need to defeat Margate and hope that either the Camping World Community Stadium of the Maurice Rebak Stadium witnesses an away win, with Concord Rangers and Carshalton Athletic cast in the role of villains. All the Hornets and the North London Blues have to do to qualify is avoid defeat- but that may not be easy.

Third place Enfield Town knew that they could go second if they could win at Whitehawk, but the Hawks hadn’t read that particular script. Another match that had only one goal, this one was scored after just five minutes by Imran Kayani, who volleyed in a long ball to win the game for his side, ending the Towners thirteen match unbeaten run at the same time. Eight matches unbeaten for the Hawks sees them in eleventh, whilst Town take on second place Chatham Town with the Chats only having to draw to hold onto that second place- something which could be rather important were the two sides to emerge victorious from their Semi-Finals.

Josh Nandhra picked up the Man of the Match Award for the Hawks- pictured.

Hastings United knew that they could climb to seventh with victory at Potters Bar Town, and they delivered exactly that. Davide Rodari was their goalscoring hero as usual, scoring his thirty third goal of the season on thirty four minutes and adding a thirty fourth on forty three minutes, giving his side what looked like a comfortable lead at the break. Brandon Adams responded for the hosts, his eighteenth of the season coming from the spot eleven minutes into the second half, and the Scholars pushed for an equaliser, but the final word went to United’s John Ufuah, who scored eight minutes into added time to seal the win.

Finally, relegated Concord Rangers hosted Bognor Regis Town. Since relegation was confirmed the Beachboys had gone three unbeaten, whilst the Rocks were hoping to end the season on a high after hitting five at Cray on Saturday, and this one proved very much one way traffic, the visitors doing all of the driving. Dan Gifford opened the scoring on seventeen minutes, whilst the second, Tommy-Lee Higgs fifteenth of the campaign, arrived almost as soon as the second half started. Alfie Bridgman made the points safe with a third on sixty seven minutes, and four minutes later the visitors were awarded a spot kick, Jasper Mather making no mistake. The Rocks are twelfth.

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