Cornard welcomed Clacton to Blackhouse Lane ready to build on the second half display at Ely and had the added bonus of a squad of 19, including players coming back from injury, holiday and work commitments.
The game started pretty evenly and it took a move of genuine quality to break the deadlock on the half hour mark, it involved almost all of the midfield and attack with Alani and Warren working the ball from the right into the midfield where Guyon spread the play out to the left. McMillan's cute pass found Barton running through and after it looked like the chance had gone the on-fire striker turned and curled the ball into the top corner from 20 yards. Not 5 minutes later and the lead was doubled when Yashar found space and neatly headed home for his first goal in Cornard colours. Perhaps a two goal lead was flattering but the age old proverb of never being as venerable as when you have just scored reared its ugly head again and within 1 minute of the kick-off the lead was cut back down to one. A neat finish from the visiting striker.
The second half saw Cornard trying to protect a fragile one goal lead again not only a good Clacton outfit but terrible weather conditions as well as some of the most bizarre refereeing I have seen at this level. The equaliser came and if truth be told was both coming and deserved. The winner came on the 70th minute after McMillan failed to deal with a long ball and the quality of the Clacton attack made sure the mistake was punished in the harshest of ways.
In the final knocking the home side seemed to have a very good penalty shout turned down after what seemed to be a goal bound shot stopped by the hand of the Clacton defender.
So 1 point from the first 2 games, perhaps disappointing considering that if you score 6 goals you would expect at least 4 points if not 6. However if you concede 7 then you expect nothing. A lot of things to learn and to build on, but its a long season and nothing is either won of lost in August.
Last season the aggregate score for these first 2 fixtures was 14-2 against. Now it is 7-6. So the gap is closing but as of yet not closed, and 19 players and 4 coaches don’t turn up 3 times a week to boast that now the team don’t loose as bad as they did before. Some hard work is ahead of us to put this right.