Today ‘The Robins’ flew east and landed at the seaside in Clacton-on-Sea, they were not there to build sand castles but to put more points on the board. On a bright but chilly day, with a wet, heavy and bumpy pitch to contend with, Ely were up against a fairly young FC Clacton team who had found themselves languishing at the bottom of the league table .
’The Robins’ kicked off in front of 138 people (Actually the biggest crowd of the day in the whole league) kicking towards the Clubhouse. In a fairly even start, ’The Seasiders’ belied their league position and knocked the ball about well, playing decent football, but the game was to change in the 9th minute. ’The Robins’ played the ball out wide to Chris Sterecki who was galloping down the right wing. ’Schreks’ took the ball in his stride, made ground and dropped his pinpoint cross on the head of Andrew Claydon. ’Porky’ was 10 yards out and he cushioned a great header right into the top right hand corner of the net, 1 - 0.
Clacton tried to go forward but 5 minutes later Ely doubled the lead with a very good individual goal. Luke Parkinson picked the ball up just inside the Clacton half, wide on the left. He flew down the wing and as he got to the edge of the box he cut inside, battled his way past two defenders as they tried to tackle him, cut across the box and hit a shot into the right hand corner of the net giving the keeper absolutely no chance, 2 - 0.
Now Ely were relentless and within 4 minutes there was another goal to celebrate. Pressure was put on the Clacton goal yet again, as the ball was cleared to the edge of the box, Josh Bridgeman struck a fierce shot, on the volley, from 20 yards out, into the left hand corner of the net. (It did take a very slight deflection on the way but I am assured that it was goal bound all the time, Josh was not the only one that assured me honest), 3 - 0.
A couple of minutes later it could have been four, a good through ball was played down the inside right channel, ’Porky’ picked it up, left his marker for dead and drove into the box Instead of pulling the trigger he unselfishly tried to lay the ball into the path of the totally unmarked Richard Chadwick unfortunately the only defender left just managed to poke the ball away and the danger was averted. On 23 minutes ’Porky did get another header on target but the keeper saved reasonably easily under the bar. The keeper actually got the ball away quickly down the left, the wide man was able to make ground and get a shot away but it was wide. Clacton did manage to keep the ball for a bit and tested the Ely defence, they managed a couple of shots but Lee Pacey in the Ely goal dealt with them comfortably. After three consecutive dangerous Ely corners, on the 40 minute mark Clacton made a quick break and a shot from Marvell brought a good save from ‘Pace’ diving away to his left. Two minutes later Ely totally sowed up the game when Austen Diaper scored for Ely again. Sam Parkinson got away down the left before putting in a dangerous cross, a defender managed to get his head to it but could only help it out to ‘Tino’ He was on the right hand angle of the box, he controlled the ball and cracked a fierce shot across the keeper, it hit the inside of the left hand post before whistling into the net, 4 - 0. A few moments later the Ref. whistled for the halftime break.
The second half started and still saw Clacton, to their credit, trying to play football and on 49 minutes they had a free kick that they put over the top but it was Ely who nearly went further ahead, ‘Chads headed the ball down to Josh B but this time he hit his shot over the bar. In fact it was 52 minutes when ‘The Robins’ went on to increase their lead. Chads again got the ball out on the left bye line before crossing into the middle. ‘Porky’ Claydon and a defender tustled for the ball and it was ‘Porky’ who won and managed to stab the ball home for his 11th league goal of the season (and make him joint leading league goal scorer), 5 - 0.
On the hour ‘Tino had a great chance to make it six, ‘Chads again got up and knocked the ball down to ‘Tino’ but he blazed his shot over the top from just outside the 6 yard box. On 63 minutes Darren Coe made way for Kenny Smith in the centre of defence and 5 minutes after that Austen Diaper was replaced by Ian Walters who slotted in wide on the right. Ely did seem to lose concentration for the last 20 minutes and became rather lacklustre in their play. It came as no surprise when they got caught out. Ben Lawrence failed to get a ball away on 74 minutes and Clowsley got away down the right squared to Condon but ‘Pace’ got a hand to the shot and ‘Schreks’ cleared off the line for a corner. Clacton were not to be denied. The corner came in to a very crowded goal area, Daniels got up to head it over the goal line. ‘Pace' claimed he had been held down but the goal was allowed to stand, 5 - 1.
A minute later the same player should have done better when he had a free header, again from a right wing cross, but this time it lacked power and was straight at Lee Pacey. On 79 minutes Ely were caught again, a through ball was latched on to by the quick lad up front, Clowsley. (I must admit that I was level with play at this point and he did look a couple of yards offside when he received the ball) He took a heavy touch into the box, wide to the right of the goal. He got to the ball before ‘Pace’ and as he went by he was caught and went down, the penalty was awarded straight away. The Referee, who seemed to have controlled the game sensibly all afternoon, showed ‘Pace’ a yellow card, where, I have seen a number of Refs. who would have gone for a red which would have been unnecessary Condon took the spot kick and converted sending ‘Pace‘ the wrong way, 5 - 2
This seemed to settle Ely a bit and they tried to control the game a bit more. In fact they had one more good chance to score again, Josh B intercepted the ball in his own half by his right touchline, he made ground to the halfway and put a ball down the right for ‘Porky‘. He travelled the line and under serious pressure managed to get a great cross in to the middle where Josh had galloped into the box, unfortunately he was unable to connect with the ball and the chance was gone. There were no more scares at either end and Ely deservedly went home with the points. The team do need to focus more at the death, this was emphersised today and dreadfully in the Diss match, but we are playing so much better and with more confidence. There were so many good points from this game that I am sure will help the team move forward and bring us even more good results.