Clacton failed to build on the weekend victory over Ely as they crashed to a 2-0 defeat to local rivals Wivenhoe Town. It was the Dragons first win for 11 months, lifted them off the foot of the Ridgeons Premier Division and few who saw the game could have argued with the result.

Andy Taylor named an unchanged side from the win over Ely and it was Clacton who started the brighter with Joe Martin calling Adam Wilding into early action with a header from a long Kevin Coyle throw.

But after a bright start it was the hosts who worked their way into the game, giving Clacton no time on the ball and getting some joy on the flanks of their narrow Broad Lane pitch. Joe Playle was called into action on fourteen minutes to save a well struck volley and there were a number of hairy moments for the Clacton backline as they struggled to deal with some good crosses into the box.

Matt Waters did nearly open the scoring midway through the half when Martin stepped over a left wing cross to allow Waters to fire a dipping effort just over from twenty yards.

The remainder of the half was Wivenhoe’s as they created more opportunities with difficult crosses into the box and had a friendly alien dropped into Broad Lane they would have struggled to tell which team had won just a few days earlier and which hadn’t won for nearly a year!

Clacton nearly nicked an undeserving interval lead just before the break from an unlikely source as Karl Andrade laid the ball back to Kyelan Marvell and his left footed cross defeated Wilding bouncing just by the far post with the spin on the ball bringing it out into play rather than into the net.

As with the first half Clacton started the second half the brighter in what was, probably, their best spell of the match. First Karl Andrade made space on the right and curled a shot just over and then Matt Cripps beat two men and laid in Kevin Coyle who nutmegged his marker and drove into the box only being prevented by a good low save to his right by Wilding with Billy Wales unable to finish the rebound, slicing his effort wide.

However, as often happens when one side is on top but doesn’t capitalise, Wivenhoe struck back to take the lead just after the hour. A ball into the box was not cleared and in the scramble that followed Tom Cutts slammed the ball home from close range.

Wivenhoe continued to press and doubled their advantage ten minutes later when a ball over the top saw Ray Catchpole lob a delightful finish over Playle from twenty yards to give the Dragons real breathing space.

Clacton did, at last, manage some pressure as Matt Waters got clear on the left only for Wilding to save with his feet at the near post. From the resulting corner the ball was not cleared but Lee Peacock could only fire the loose ball over the bar.

With just over five minutes remaining Clacton felt they should have had a penalty when a right wing cross appeared to strike a hand on its way through but the referee judged that it was not intentional.

With that Clacton’s last real hope had gone as Wivenhoe comfortably held on for a deserved victory.