Sittingboune Gary Abbott has urged his red-hot side to go on and win the Ryman League Division 1 South.

Bourne launched a play-off push before Christmas and have stormed up the table with seven wins in 10 games, closing the gap on the leaders and igniting ambitions far higher than a place in the top five.

After Tuesday night’s 2-0 win at Chatham – their 13th successive win over the Chats during a run which stretches back to Boxing Day 2003 – Bourne went seventh, four points outside the top five.

Abbott (pictured top) said: "I spoke to the players and said, let’s go and win it. We will give it a good go. We are only 10 points off the top and we have got three games in hand on some of the teams up there.

"I once won the league with Enfield when we were 19 points behind with 15 games left, we won it by a point."

Hicham Akhazzan turned the ball in to put Sittingbourne ahead after Chatham keeper Dean Ruddy had handled a backpass in his six-yard box on 13 minutes.

Both sides had chances before Jimmy Bottle sealed the win with a tap-in eight minutes from time.

The Brickies should be at full-strength for the trip to Dulwich (2pm) tomorrow (Saturday) and could include 17-year old former Margate teenager Sam Pain.

Chatham are now 16th and 16 points off the bottom, though basement-boys Ashford have four games in hand.

Despite having lost 12 of 16 in Division 1 South, the Chats could jump up six places with a win against Whyteleafe at Maidstone Road on Saturday.

Boss Alex O’Brien pictured said: "Frustration is a good word for Tuesday’s game. We started well and looked the better side but then we gifted them a goal with an individual mistake. We huffed and puffed to try and get back into it but then they caught us on the break.

"They are a good side defensively, but we let ourselves down."

Richard Avery suffered a reaction to his ankle injury on Tuesday night and is unlikely to feature on Saturday while John Wilfort is still banned.