Star striker Paul Vines came to Chatham's rescue as a stand-in goalkeeper in their win at Crowborough.

Boss James Collins was hoping to give his 30-goal leading scorer a rest after naming him on the bench.

But when keeper Dan Ellis dislocated his finger in the build-up to Boro's eighth-minute opener, Collins turned to his captain.

Vines was up for the challenge and kept Chats in the game with two great saves in the 3-1 victory, also setting up the clinching third goal.

Boss Collins said: "I turned to Vinesy and said, 'can you go in goal?' and he said, 'yeah, I can.'

"I said, 'I know you can, but can you actually go in goal?' and again he said he could and that he'd done it before.

"He's made two great saves when the score's still 1-0.

"The first one was unbelievable where he's pushed a point-blank header on to the bar and the second one he's ran across the line and dived like Superman and held on to the ball.

"It was only where his positioning was bad that he's been able to make that save.

"A proper keeper wouldn't have made it because they'd have been in the right place to dive and the ball would probably have gone in."

Vines was back in his normal role on pitch last night, scoring a penalty in a 4-1 win at SC Thamesmead in the Challenge Cup semi-final first leg.