MANAGERLESS Maldon and Tiptree suffered their fifth defeat in a row as they were beaten 2-0 by Chatham Town at Park Drive.
The Jammers slipped down to 19th in the Ryman One North as Mason Bloomfield and Austin Gacheru sealed the win for Chatham.
Visitors Chatham shocked their hosts with a goal in the very first minute when Lee Hales got away down the right and his fine cross was swept home first time by Bloomfield.
Chatham continued to attack and Liam Hickery fired in a cross shot from the left that flew just wide of the far post, before the home side created a good scoring chance when Hayes Thomas did well down the left and got in a fine cross that Tony Martin hit wide when well placed.
The Jammers' Alberto Pinto then sent a good ball forward that Kyle Asante just failed to control when moving through on goal before Nathan Koranteng delivered a free kick that new signing Paul Kurtis just put wide at the far post.
Chatham responded with a good break led by Matt Solly who crossed for Lewis Knight to see his shot saved then the visitors surprisingly, and somewhat against the play, added to their lead after 34 minutes when Gacheru swung at the ball and rather luckily saw it lob into the net over home keeper Jack Giddens despairing dive.
Visiting keeper Lee Kidman then just managed to beat away a 30 metre strong drive from Koranteng before both Martin and Asante just failed to get a final touch to a cross along the goal.
With the visitors seemingly content with their goal tally it was the home side who made most of the running in the second half with Martin finishing a fine move down the pitch but his fierce cross shot from a narrow angle flew wide.
Jammers substitute Joe Pearman then put a cross in that gave Asante a scoring chance in front of goal but he could not get a clean contact and the chance was lost, before Chatham's Cory Holder shot weakly when played in by Gacheru.
Visiting keeper Lee Kidman then came to his teams rescue when he just managed to push away Koranteng's strong low shot and then from the resultant corner he threw himself along his goal line to keep out new signing Paul Kurtis's header.
Towards the end of the half the home side almost laid siege to the visitors goal and Kidman again excelled when blocking Asante's low shot before the keeper could not keep possession of a cross but Asante put his effort over the goal from almost under the bar.