Eight-man FC Clacton suffered FA Vase heartache as they went down 4-2 in extra time to Ridgeons League Division One leaders Whitton United. It was a brave display by the Seasiders, who played almost the whole 120 minutes with a man down after Matt Cripps second minute dismissal whilst Sean Hillier and Lee Barrett were dismissed in extra time, with Anton Clarke also seeing red for the visitors in the second half.

The game got off to an explosive start as Kevin Inglis hit a tremendous twenty-yard effort that had Joe Playle beaten only for Cripps, covering back, to instinctively push the ball from off the line with his hand. The referee had no hesitation in awarding the penalty and no option but to send off Cripps. Inglis converted the penalty to leave Clacton facing an uphill task to get back in the game.

Whitton controlled the early stages and Simon Hyde should have scored when he met a right wing cross unmarked but could only glance his stooping header wide. Then Clarke had a curling free kick well saved by Playle before the keeper also denied Chris Williams with his legs.

Clacton hung in and slowly began to turn the tide, finding an equaliser shortly before half-time. Good pressure by Aaron Condon forced and error in the Whitton defence allowing Sean Hillier to steal the ball before being tripped by Inglis. From the resulting free-kick Tom Austin stepped up to drill a low shot home to score his first goal for the club.

The lead could have only lasted a minute as Marcus Josiah should have restored the lead as he completely missed his header from six yards out from a corner. However just when Clacton thought that they had gotten to half-time level they found themselves behind as a corner was only cleared to Inglis who smashed a twenty-five yard shot over Playle to put the visitors ahead again.

Whitton nearly extended their lead after half time when Hyde found himself in space only to see his shot beat Playle but get cleared off the line by Lee Peacock. As the clearance was completed downfield Kevin Coyle flicked on for Condon to burst between two men before he was hauled down by Clarke when clean through. For the second time in the game Mr Pawley had no option but to award a penalty and issue a red card. Captain Kevin Coyle stepped up to dispatch the penalty and level things up again.

With the numbers level it was the home side that controlled the game with Darren Moyes having to parry a long range Coyle effort wide before Condon shot high and wide when he really could have passed to team-mates in better positions.

Whitton were still posing a threat and with just over ten minutes left Kris Nita did well down the left to work an opening to cross for Josiah to fire wide. Then Clacton looked like they might nick it as Hillier met a left wing cross well only for Moyes to tip over. In the last ten minutes Condon was twice denied, once by a fantastic last ditch block by Robbie Knott and then by the legs of  Moyes after being slid in by Matt Waters.

With no-one able to break the deadlock the game moved to extra-time where, initially, the pattern of the second half continued with Clacton looking in the ascendancy and looked like they might score as Condon got to the byline to pull back for Waters whose shot was blocked.

Then came the turning point as Lee Barrett when down under a challenge twenty five yards out and no foul was given, the ball was cleared high and long and was not dealt with by the Clacton defenders who got in a pickle allowing Williams a clear run on goal to tuck past Playle.

A minute later Hillier committed a foul in midfield and was shown his second yellow card leaving Clacton a man down again with twenty minutes to find an equaliser.  However their task was to get even harder with ten minutes left as Barrett unwisely pushed his hand into the face of an opponent giving the referee little option but to show yet another red card and reduce Clacton to eight men.

Their one chance to get back in the game came with five minutes left as a flick on fell to Lee Peacock who headed wide and Clacton’s fate was sealed with three minutes left as a quick free kick put Williams away and he smashed past Playle to end Clacton’s Vase dreams.

A crazy game with 6 goals, 4 sending’s off, 6 other bookings and a host of incident. If you win these games then you remember them as one of the great games, if you lose them then they leave you gutted. We came up short today but both teams should feel proud of their efforts as they both gave it a really good go in a breathless, full-throttle, rollercoaster of a cup tie.