Old Southendians 2 Clacton 2

NE14Hockey East League

Division 3SE

Old Southendians 2 Clacton 2

Clacton started the second half of the season where they left off with a strong performance ending in a draw.

The Seasiders started brightly with Sam Hodge, Rob Lukey, and Ric Coleman pressurising the home defence and working well together going forwards.

With Alex Mortimer progressing down the right and captain Carl Parkes joining in the attacks it was Clacton pressing for the opening goal.

The best of the chances came when Parkes drifted through the home midfield and defence to slot the ball wide of the home keeper to Hodge, unfortunately Hodge shot went into the side netting with the home defence scrambling back on the line.

Shortly after that the home side broke the deadlock with a short corner goal. Clacton continued to have the better of the play through the hard work of Jamie Roberts, Peter Wright, and Gavin Roberts.

Nick Key was solid at the back with good talking and keeper Mike Key was in form with the little the home side mustered in the first half.

Densil Donovan worked tirelessly all game long breaking up the home sides progress and turning defence into attack with some intelligent passing.

On the stroke of half time Hodge got the ball into the back of the net when he poached on a loose ball, but this time he was denied by the umpires early whistle in awarding the Seasiders a short corner instead of a goal.

The second half followed the same pattern but this time Clacton found the clinical touch in front of goal.

First Lukey got his stick in the right place to deflect Coleman's scorching short corner strike into the roof of the net for 1-1.

Then, from the following short corner, Parkes dribbled into the circle before laying the ball off to man-of-the-match Donovan to slide the ball home through the keepers legs for 2-1.

This woke the home side up and Clacton's keeper Mike Key was asked some more questions, but they discovered he had all the answers with the best save coming from a well worked move ending with a picture book save from a drag flick shot.

The Seasiders were put under more and more pressure by the home side as they looked to get back in the game, and with the last action of the game their pressure paid off when a short corner was eventually forced home after Mike Key and the rest of the defence fought hard to keep the ball out in a melee of shots.

Clacton finished the game downhearted at the 2-2 result having led with seconds remaining, but it was a great performance with lots of character to get in front during the second half.

Next week Clacton play top of the league Fords at Clacton Leisure (14:00) hoping to do better than the 7-3 loss at the start of the season.