Essex Senior League, Wednesday 31st January
The final evening of January and I chose to pop over to The Terry Mac at Newham Leisure Centre to watch two sides who have had to rebuild somewhat after changes on and off the field in the last couple of months or so, play off chasing Athletic Newham, who were hosting FC Clacton in a rearranged fixture from earlier in the season.
The hosts were looking to try and break into that top five club and a play off position, and three points here would get them level with fifth placed Barking, and a healthy home win could have taken them above The Blues into that fifth spot on goal difference, so that was the aim for the hosts who had managed to win on their last outing in the league at the weekend, this after back to back losses.
They were up against a FC Clacton side who were unbeaten in four games in all competitions, so even if they were down in 14th spot before the game they were still going to be a tough assignment for the hosts, the two had met back in September on the North Essex coast, and Clacton had ran out 3-2 winners in that one, although neither sides were the same from that game so hard to read into that one, it was four/five months ago and a lot has changed since then.
Now before the game had even began the evening had it's dramas, the visitors had a nightmare in getting to East London from North Essex, the A12 was shut for several hours at Colchester meaning a big diversion through some small towns and villages to get around the issue, this caused havoc in anyone North of Colchester getting south of it, meaning when I arrived at the ground at around 7pm, half the visiting side were nowhere near arriving.
A new kick off time of 8pm was announced, although the Clacton management were still not sure if all of their starting eleven would even be there by that time, and discussions between the hosts and the visitors plus the match referee ended with an agreement that the game would be delayed further till 8.15pm, which was the latest they could kick off. Fingers were then crossed that the players in question would arrive before that time so they could get going.
Now, the added issue was that the game had to be finished by 10pm as the Leisure Centre and grounds were to be closed at this time, and kicking off at 8:15pm meant that time was very tight shall we say, the solution was to shorten the game time, yes shorten the game time, to, forty minutes per half, so an eighty minute contest, this then gave them a bit more leeway with the timings, and it was all agreed by the league after the referee called them to get the ok to do this, so we had an eighty minute game which eventually kicked off at 8:17pm, 32 minutes after the original kick off time.
All present were just thankful we had a game as anymore delays may have resulted in the game not starting at all, so thankfully that didn't happen, but it meant Athletic Newham were very warmed up after being on the pitch for quite sometimes prior to the original kick off time, and the visitors literally turned up, had a chat and then off they went, it certainly was not ideal preparation for the visitors that was for sure.
Clacton actually began quite well, but it was the hosts who grabbed a 14th minute lead as pacey attacker Idris Aminu cut in from the left hand side and after running across the area to try and get a shooting angle, he eventually struck a decent right footed effort back across goal and into the far corner, and now the visitors would have to try and battle back in this contest.
Clacton's already miserable afternoon/evening got even worse six minutes before the break when they were reduced to ten men after a poor challenge on the right wing resulted in a second yellow, and now not only did the visitors trail by a goal at the half they also were a man light too.
But instead of feeling sorry for themselves and throwing in the towel, the visitors actually did pretty well considering they had ten men, although they should have found themselves further behind when the hosts struck the crossbar with a pretty decent effort from range, and they also missed a point blank header too as they looked to take advantage of their extra man.
But it was Clacton who were to grab the next goal as after the hosts keeper had brought down a visiting attacker to give away a penalty, Teddy Collis stepped up to send the booked keeper the wrong way in the 63rd minute and hand the ten man side a leveller, meaning it was all to play for in the final seventeen minutes plus added on time, of which their would not be much of due to the time constraints.
For a time you felt the ten men may go on and win it, but they were more than happy with a point after what had gone on before, and so the hosts were the ones trying to win it at the end, but Clacton stood firm although with literally the final act of the game it looked like the hosts should have had a nailed on penalty, but instead of it being given the referee blew the full time whistle instead, leaving the hosts frustrated to say the least.
It means Athletic Newham do climb a place to 8th and a point closer to the play offs, but they really wanted all three, especially after leading at the half and having a man extra, whereas Clacton would have been delighted to have come away with something after the afternoon/evening they had endured, and the point takes them up a place to 13th having extended their unbeaten run to five games now.
So, a rather bizarre turn of events this evening, but we got a game in and it wasn't to bad a contest in the end, and I hope all the Clacton guys and girls had a much better journey home than the one they had coming to the game, the were at least rewarded with something to cheer and didn't return home empty handed.
Full time Athletic Newham 1 FC Clacton 1
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