Chard narrowly missed out on a share of the spoils, giving runaway league leaders Bridgwater a real run for their money while producing one of their best performances of the season.

Although the visitors' early pressure produced a string of penalty corners, from one of which they took an 8th minute lead, Chard did not allow themselves to be overawed and replied by creating scoring chances of their own from open play, making intelligent use of both wings. For all their promise, it was Bridgwater who doubled their lead in the 28th minute and looked comfortable as the clock ran down to half time.

Chard's positive start to the second half saw an early and dramatic turnaround as they stunned Bridgwater with two goals in two minutes. The first featured good approach play by George Parris, exchanging passes with Elliot Webb before threading the ball through to Joel Handscomb who fired into the corner of the net. Then patient build up down the right wing culminated in Blaise Marchant finding Gary Wheaton who timed his pass to pick out Alan Cheffey's run to the top of the D to perfection. Cheffey's placement of his first time shot caught the keeper flatfooted and he could do nothing but watch the ball roll into the net.

For a brief moment, it looked possible that Chard might spring a bigger surprise, their confidence boosted by being back on level terms. However, the visitors grabbed a third goal with a close range effort after working the ball to and along the backline. They went close to adding a fourth minutes later before Chard rediscovered their attacking rhythm in pursuit of what ultimately proved to be an elusive equaliser.

Despite the defeat, this was an excellent all round team performance with outstanding performances from Handscomb, Isaac Parris and Ollie Bartlett who all gave the experienced defenders facing them a hard time while George Parris in midfield turned in another impressive playmaking display. Mention must also go to keeper Luke Bradshaw. He had a busy game as expected and produced several important saves to keep Chard in with a chance of snatching a point.

Thanks to umpires: Jim Sainsbury and Trevor Goss

Squad: L Bradshaw, B Marchant, N Parris, S Mahoney, A Cheffey, G Wheaton, G Parris, P Bartlett, O Bartlett, J Handscomb, I Parris, E Webb