Chatham Town Women halted London Bees’ winning start to the season last Sunday and face a potentially bigger challenge at home this weekend.

Keith Boanas’ side held the free-scoring Bees to a goalless draw and now host a Fulham outfit who have won their opening four matches in Division 1 South East.

Fulham had been a serious force in the women’s game, former Women’s Premier League champions and FA Cup winners - once against Boanas’ Charlton side in 2003. The team dissolved in 2006, coming back as an independent outfit soon after, but without the funding to sustain the success. They were reincorporated to Fulham FC in 2018 and have been working their way back up.

Looking ahead to this Sunday’s game at the Bauvill Stadium, the Chats manager said: “History is history, but it’s totally different now. They’ve had to work their way back up, and they’ve come up from Step 5 this year.

“Their manager, Steve Jaye, has been there through that journey and with a Premier League side backing them they could go all the way through the leagues.

“They are well backed and have won all their games, four from four, which means they will come here confident. I know their manager, and he’s already messaged to say he’s looking forward to the match.

“They will come to us thinking they can beat us, but they will be very wary as well, like most teams are. The Bees manager said before, we’re well coached and I think we are as well coached as we can be, but we don’t have the same contact time and resources that they have.

“If we put our best foot forward, then we can certainly mix it and match it with anyone, and we proved that in pre-season.

“We have had a couple of blips this season, but a lot of that has been down to injuries, and we haven’t had a balanced side.

“I am looking forward to when I have everyone fit and available, then that becomes another challenge, but it would be nice to get a settled side for a run of games.

“We could be close to full strength this weekend, and if we are, we should be able to give them a bloody good game.”

Chats started their league season with wins over AFC Sudbury and Milton Keynes before a home loss to QPR was followed by the draw against London Bees.

The Bees kicked off their campaign with 4-0 wins against Chesham United and Milton Keynes Dons, either side of an 8-2 victory over AFC Sudbury.

Boanas had defenders Parker Dunn and Ellie Perkins back from injury and they helped keep the Bees out.

He said: “It was a justified result, it was very even, they had started their season flying with three games out of three in the league, scoring lots of goals.

“I knew they had players that could hurt us and we had players that could hurt them.

“There were chances at both ends. We weren’t ruthless enough and I think their manager said the same.

“In the last moments they probably had the better chances but Simone Eligon made a double save, one that could only be described as world class, keeping a clean sheet for us and so a point away from home.”