Gillingham put in a fine display but fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat at Chatham on Friday night.
A strike from distance from Alex Giles was enough to separate the teams in a pre-season friendly at the Bauvill.
Pete Gill and Scott Wagstaff took charge of the game with Nelson Khumbeni and Harry Waldock starting in midfield. Zack Whitelock started up top with Damien Theodore on the wing.
Chatham should have taken the lead on two minutes when an aggressive sliding tackle on Theodore gave the hosts possession high up the pitch.
Adam Leathers played a brilliant pass to Jimmy Wild inside the box, but the striker failed to make significant contact and the ball ran safe.
Not long after and it was Spencer who did really well to save an effort from inside the box. The Chatham corner was initially cleared but kept alive and it required both Nelson Khumbeni and Michael Luxton to muscle their way onto the ball to give Gills some breathing space.
Following the early storm, the visitors began to settle and progressively began to ask more questions of a well drilled Chatham side.
Theodore, always lively on the left wing, came inside and spread play to Booth on the right. His first touch was excellent and he did well to get beyond his man before firing an effort towards goal which Nathan Harvey kept out.
The hosts took the lead on the half hour mark when Giles came forward and decided to try his luck from range. It was a powerful effort and it appeared to take a small deflection which wrong footed Spencer and the ball flew it into the back of the net.
HT: Chatham Town 1-0 Gillingham
The hosts had a couple of half chances thwarted by Spencer before Beszant went close in the 55th minute.
Dayal found the midfielder from a free-kick; Beszant shifted towards his left to get away from a defender before seeing his powerful effort kept out by Harvey.
Both sides made several changes midway through the half and a young Gills side did very well to resist their hosts, but on 86 minutes the Chats should have put the result beyond doubt when Ben Allen pounced on a defensive error and found himself inside the box with just Hegarty to beat.
His strike was clean, but the effort missed the target by a matter of inches.
Gills tried to find a late equalizer, but Chatham held out for a narrow victory.
FT: Chatham Town 1-0 Gillingham
Chatham: Harvey (Trialist 66), Hobden (Evans HT), Nelson, Butler (Turner 60), Coker (Olugbodi 73), Giles (Trialist 62), Leathers, Moynes (Streatfield 66), Oldfield (Allen HT), Stevenson (Folarin 62), Wild
Gills: Spencer (Fletcher 66), Booth (Jones 60), Luxton (James 60), Waldock (Cross 60), Webster (Adams 60), Dobbs (Stone 60), Dayal (Mhlanga 60), Khumbeni (Orpwood 60), Whitelock (Silva 72), Beszant (Kingston 600, Theodore (Procopi 60)
