FC Clacton came from a goal behind to earn a point as their meeting with Kirkley and Pakefield ended in a stalemate. Karl Andrade’s deft lob cancelled out Dominic Smith’s early penalty but that was a fleeting moment of quality in a what was in all honesty a drab ninety minutes of football.

Clacton handed a debut to new signing Ben Wake who came in at left back for the unavailable Kyelan Marvell. However it was Kirkley who were much the better side in the early stages with the Seasiders struggling to get a foothold in the game. The visitors took the lead in the eighth minute as Aaron Condon fouled Kyle Baker inside the area and Smith stepped up to convert the penalty and give the visitors a deserved lead.

Clacton nearly pulled level when a header by Lee Peacock was well saved by Jordan Smith and then the home side felt that they should have had a penalty when they felt Kevin Coyle was fouled with the linesman appearing to flag for the foul but the referee was not convinced.

The game settled into a pattern with both sides cancelling each other out as the ball spent far too much time in the air for the game to ever be an attractive spectacle for the 112 spectators in attendance. However Andrade did provide a moment of class to bring the scores level after twenty eight minutes as a long Lee Peacock free kick was not cut out and as it bounced twenty yards out Andrade coolly lifted the ball over the advancing Smith and into the net via the underside of the crossbar.

Two minutes after the interval Kirkley came close to taking the lead as Ross Catchpole lashed in a long range shot that Ed Wootten parried out with Baker sliding the rebound past the keeper from a tight angle but it was cleared by the covering defenders.

With this the game settled back into its unfortunate pattern of aerial balls with few chances for either side. Midway through the half good work down the Clacton left nearly worked an opening but as a tackle came in it was only cleared to Aaron Condon on the right edge of the area. The winger controlled the loose ball and then fizzed a shot that clipped the top of the Kirkley bar.

Despite having the greater possession and territory Clacton failed to create a further clear cut chance and in fact it was the visitors who had the better chance in the last ten minutes as defensive errors allowed Baker to nip in, go past Tom Austin but his left-footed shot lacked the power to beat Wootten.

There was just time for one last home effort as Dunkley fired over a long range effort in injury time but in the end both teams had to settle for a point that was a fair result based on the performance of the two teams.