The wind was an important factor in the game and the home team had the benefit of it in the first half, but Chesham used it after the interval to launch a comeback that fell just short. Chesham made five changes to the team beaten by Hampton on Monday – Josh Addae, Callum Adebiyi, Matt Lench, Gio Rasulo and Omar Rowe were recalled in place of Connor Roberts, Steve Brown, Samson Esan and Matt McClure who were all on the bench and Alex Lafleur who was away.

Chesham made a bright start but conceded a poor goal in the seventh minute, when two defenders got in each other’s way in attempting to deal with a long clearance and Louie Kudiabor ran on to slot the ball past Ben Goode.  Two minutes later a Ricky Holmes free kick was headed back across goal by Joe Grimwood and David Longe-King netted from close range to make it 2-0.  Chesham struggled to make any headway against the wind but at least made it to half-time without conceding again.  On the half-hour Ricky Holmes netted but was clearly offside but the assistant referee did not flag, presumably because he thought the ball might have come off a defender.  After a quick discussion the referee disallowed the goal.

Chesham made a double substitution at half-time and this, coupled with the fact that the wind was now in their favour, changed the course of the game.  Early in the second half Samson Esan crossed after a corner was cleared and Connor Stevens headed just over.  Just after the hour mark Chesham halved the deficit when keeper Chris Haigh tipped away a corner from Alfie Williams, the ball bounced around in the area and eventually Matt Lench forced it over the line.  In the next minute David Longe-King was shown a straight red card after he wrestled Mitchell Weiss to the ground in an off-the-ball incident.  Chesham continued to press and Karl Oliyide had a shot blocked for a corner, from which Josh Addae had another shot which was also blocked close to the line.  On 80 minutes Chesham brought on Matt McClure and his first act was to hook the ball just over from a Josh Addae long throw.  As Chesham pushed forward Chelmsford broke away and Junior Nkeng’s long shot was parried by Ben Goode.   Chesham’s best effort came in the first minute of stoppage time, when a 25-yard shot from Alex Babos beat Haigh but flew just wide.  Deep into stoppage time Steve Brown was left one-on-one with Lyle Taylor inside the Chesham half, and as Taylor threatened to break clear Brown pulled his opponent down to be shown a straight red card.

Man of the Match: Alfie Williams