It ended up a Boxing Day draw at the Bowl as FC Clacton and Brantham Athletic fought out a scrappy stalemate. Aaron Condon’s early goal was cancelled out by a disputed penalty that was dispatched by Brantham’s prolific Ollie Mann and a game of few chances in the end hinged on a couple of key decisions including a red card for Clacton’s Tom Austin that will probably leave both sides feeling somewhat hard done by.

Both sides were forced to re-jig their starting line-ups with Clacton missing Matt Cripps, Kevin Coyle and Karl Andrade with Sean Hillier returning from injury but only fit enough for the bench. However if they missed them, there was no evidence of it when Condon fired the home side into a tenth minute lead. A corner was hooked goalwards by Joe Martin and, after ricocheting off a defender, landed at the feet of Condon who rifled home from an angle to put the home side ahead.

Brantham nearly fired straight back three minutes later as they won a free kick twenty five yards out. Ollie Mann stepped up and smashed in a fierce free kick that looked destined to tear into the net until Joe Playle flung himself low to his right to push the shot away. The rebound was also fired goalwards and, in the first contentious moment of the afternoon, was blocked on the line by Lee Peacock with Brantham convinced that he had handled the ball in making the block.

Four minutes later Playle was on hand to thwart Mann again as a slip allowed the striker in on the left hand angle but his low shot was well saved.  With this the game settled into a midfield stalemate with the only incident of note another low save by the feet of Playle from Josh Mayhew ten minutes before half time.

The interval saw another re-jig for Clacton as Dan Smith, playing as centre-back, limping off forcing a switch around with James Dunkley reverting from striker to his more familiar left-back role. And within four minutes the Seasiders were indebted to Dunkley for preserving the lead as a low cross found its way to Daniel Pryke ten yards out who looked odds on to score, until a tremendous last ditch block from Dunkley averted the danger.

On fifty-eight minutes the visitors did get their equaliser following the second of the afternoon’s controversial moments. Trying to clear a ball thirty yards out Tom Austin was caught in two minds under pressure from Lee Grimwood and in the end only succeeded in diverting the ball back towards goal. In trying to retrieve the situation he stumbled and fell across the path of the striker who went down right on the edge of the area. The referee judged the foul (although without intent) was just inside the area and having awarded the penalty had little option but to send Austin off as the last defender (causing yet another defensive reshuffle!). Ollie Mann coolly drilled home a low penalty leaving Clacton with half an hour to hold out.

And hold out they did, despite Brantham maintaining vastly superior territory and possession for the last half an hour the high-flying visitors could not find a way to breach the Clacton backline although Ollie Mann, Marley Spindler and Joshua Capocci all had efforts that were all off target (in varying degrees). The one time that the home defence was breached saw the Seasiders rescued by a linesman’s flag as Ollie Mann’s header was ruled out for offside.

So, the usual tightly fought contest between these two sides ended in a draw with both sides thinking of what might have been. Brantham on the fact that they could not quite force the winner and on the possible first half penalty whilst Clacton will wonder what might have been if the referee had judged the penalty offence a yard or two further back. In the end a draw was probably right, and as in the spirit of anything you receive at Christmas I’ll be grateful for what we did get rather than worry about what we didn’t. Merry Christmas all.