A first senior goal for the club from Billy Wales and a spectacular strike from Aaron Condon helped FC Clacton to book their place in the first round proper of the Ridgeons League Cup with a 3-1 victory over Woodbridge Town at the Rush Green Bowl.

Thankfully for the 87 fans in attendance the game was a much more pleasing spectacle than the one witnessed in our previous home game versus Cornard, and the Clacton starting line-up showed three changes from that game, with manager Andy Taylor playing the first-half at left-back, and Aaron Condon and James Dunkley forming a new look strike partnership up front.

The home side went into the match with confidence, on the back of three straight wins, and it was they who created the first chance of the match after three minutes.  A ball played over the top of the defence was met by Seasiders’ skipper Kevin Coyle who beat the visiting keeper to the ball but unfortunately his attempted lob landed on the roof of the net.

Clacton thought they had opened the scoring some seven minutes later when a free-kick from Coyle was palmed by Woodbridge keeper Dixon to the feet of Joe Martin some two yards out for a tap-in; however the linesman on the near side raised his flag and the effort was ruled out for offside. 

There was to be further frustration for the home side on 22 minutes when a second effort was also disallowed.  Following excellent work from Condon, Dunkley and Hillier, Coyle once again found himself in a scoring position just inside the penalty area; however his low shot into the bottom corner of the net was once again ruled out for offside.

It was between the two disallowed goals that the visitors had their best effort of the match and very nearly took the lead.  A swift counter-attack from a Clacton corner ended with Ben Seaman hitting a curling effort from the left touchline; the cross-cum-shot looked innocuous enough at first but, with Playle backtracking, the attempt very nearly dipped under the crossbar and had to be tipped over for a corner, from which Liam Scopes headed over the bar from 8 yards out.

Clacton finally took the lead on 27 minutes courtesy of an individual effort from Aaron Condon.  Cutting inside from the right hand touchline, he unleashed a rising 25-yard effort which beat the despairing dive of Dixon and went in just inside the visiting custodians right’ hand post.

With half-time rapidly approaching the home side doubled their lead.  Good work down the right by Kyelan Marvell ended with him delivering the ball into the penalty area, where his cross was met by a bullet header from James Dunkley some four yards out to give the hosts’ a 2-0 lead at the interval.

It took the visitors just four minutes of the second half to halve the deficit; a low, driven attempt from range by Mark Roper appeared to have been smothered by Playle, however the ball somehow spilled from his grasp and Joshua Mayhew slid in to give the visitors a lifeline.

Just six minutes later the home side would re-establish their two-goal cushion as Billy Wales scored his first senior goal for the club with a well taken finish from inside the penalty area.

Woodbridge did have a couple of decent chances to once again reduce the arrears, the first of which came on 69 minutes when Tom Trevivian found himself 12 yards out with only Playle to beat; however the Clacton keeper made the save to keep the lead intact. 

There were further nervous moments in the home defence some 3 minutes later.  Ben Seaman’s free-kick into the box was met by the head of Mayhew; his effort was saved by Playle, but the attempt from the resulting rebound had to be blocked at close range by Kyelan Marvell to maintain the Seasiders’ advantage.

The last quarter saw no real goal-mouth action or incident of any kind, and the home side saw things out relatively comfortably to advance to the next round of the competition.