This was a game that will not live long in the memory as the swing in weather turned what had been a heavy pitch less than two weeks earlier into a rock-hard surface that both sides found difficult to deal with.
The visitors had half a dozen openings in the game but failed to cash in and their relegation battle continues as the trapdoor to First Division football opened a little wider, leaving them six points adrift of 17th-placed Wivenhoe Town.
Dan Davis was the first half hero for the home side, twice clearing off the line in the opening minutes and getting the touch to score the Felixstowe goal with a little help from Clacton defender Lee Peacock.
The visitors posed an early threat and should have been ahead in the sixth minute when Jamie Stannard raced off his line to clear a long through ball but Clacton’s Kalon Harmes got there first.
The striker looked certain to score from 20 yards with an open goal in front of him, but his finish lacked power and Davis got across to clear the ball away from inside the six-yard box.
Two minutes later, Davis was again in action. Stannard saved Harms’ initial effort but couldn’t hold on to it and the big defender again hooked the ball off the line and away to safety.
Having survived the early scare, the home side punished the visitors in the 15th minute when Chapman conceded a free kick 30 yards out, and Brad Barber delivered a pin-point cross that Davis met full-on, only to be denied by Daniels who tipped his header over the bar.
The Essex seasiders only half cleared the resultant corner and Barber who took the flag kick swung another quality cross into a busy 18 yard box for Davis to send a glancing header beyond the luckless Daniels. Peacock looked to have got the final touch to help Davis’ header on its way but it was the home side’s defender who took the plaudits.
That opening 20 minutes was the best of a pretty scrappy game, with neither side able to get control of the ball for any extended period.
The visitors’ leading scorer Aaron Condon twice spurned chances, lobbing a free kick from the edge of the area harmlessly over Stannard’s bar, before dring an angled shot across the ‘keeper in the 68th minute that Stannard pushed away.
There were a few skirmishes in and around the visitors’ area which came to nothing and the last action of an otherwise forgettable afternoon again involved Stannard, who further frustrated the visitors with an excellent save inside his right hand post, getting down to collect what looked a goalbound free-kick around the wall from Coyle with ten minutes left.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here