Clapton CFC rounded off the year with an emphatic 4–0 away win over nearest neighbours Barkingside at Cricklefield Stadium.
It’s hard to pick out whether the two goals from James Briggs were the most memorable – or the two penalty saves from Jack Francis.
After a quiet opening spell, Clapton began to assert themselves and took the lead on 17 minutes. Briggs delivered a teasing cross with the outside of his right boot. Several Clapton players couldn’t quite get a touch on it, nor Barkingside defenders clear it, but in the melee, the spinning ball drifted past the keeper anyway.
CCFC’s growing dominance told again on 36 minutes when another Briggsy delivery was only half cleared, allowing Pete Jamieson to drill a daisy-cutter into the corner from the edge of the area.
That was the midfielder’s first goal for the club since joining in the summer and he could have added a second before half-time but fired over after good work from Jeff Twumasi and Fred Taylor.
Barkingside briefly threatened early in the second half, but Clapton seemed to put the game to bed with a third goal on 58 minutes. CCFC were awarded a free-kick in prime Briggsy territory – just outside the box on the left hand side. To the surprise of virtually no-one, he curled it around the wall and into the top corner.
However, Barkingside were given two lifelines to get back into the game with two penalties awarded in the space of a few minutes, both for challenges inside the area. For the first, Francis dived to his right and held it. For the second, he threw himself to the left and saved with his feet. Extraordinary double penalty save from captain Francis.
The icing on the cake arrived late on when Nathan Cook found fellow sub Andre Odeku, who lifted a superb finish over the keeper for his sixth goal of an injury-hit season.
The win puts CCFC in third place at the turn of the year but it’s close at the top. We’re just five points off top and three points from sixth and dropping out of the play-offs.