In our first league fixture at the Old Spotted Dog Ground since September, Clapton were able to bounce back to winning ways following last week’s agonising FA Vase defeat. Goals from Junia Charlton and Fred Taylor made it 2-0 going into half time, with Staplehurst’s star striker Luke Adams bagging a consolation goal in injury time, shortly followed by the full-time whistle. Match report by Obi Lazarus...

Following four unbeaten away days, Clapton CFC extended their unbeaten run to five league games with a 2-1 home win against Staplehurst Monarchs as seen by an imposing 727 supporters at the ground. Despite the cold weather, spirits were lifted by Junia Charlton, who bagged the opener within the first five minutes. Fred Taylor lofted a picturesque pass towards Ross Broadway who played it through once more only for the move to be halted by a rash Staplehurst challenge. Although the free-kick would have been promising, the referee played the advantage and Noah Adejokun regained possession on the right flank before the ball flashed across goal for Charlton to find the back of the net for his second ever Clapton goal.

“[My] first goal [was the] first men’s senior goal at the Old Spotted Dog, and it was obviously nice to get a second one,” Junia told me. “Needed to make up for last week’s penalty, so yeah it felt nice!”

Charlton was not to feel lonely on the scoresheet for long, and he was soon joined by Taylor just past the half hour mark. After Clapton were awarded a penalty for a reckless challenge, Taylor calmly sent the keeper the wrong way to tuck the ball into the left side netting and double the lead. Going into half-time, Clapton were dominant and, aside from a controversial penalty appeal that was not given Staplehurst’s way, had not faced much threat in the first 45 minutes.

The second half did not follow suit. Staplehurst began to string together some forward passes, and began to look threatening. At the hour mark, Jack Francis was forced to make an athletic double save, both at full stretch, to prevent the visitors from pulling one back and regaining a foothold in the game.

Aside from Adejokun forcing a low stop from Steven Lawrence, Staplehurst goalkeeper, not much else happened until the dying minutes of the match, when Luke Adams broke through to give the Monarchs a spark of hope of rescuing a point from the game. It was too little too late, however, and the spark turned to smoke a minute later when the final whistle blew. Despite the loss, Staplehurst proved themselves to be a classy outfit both on and off the pitch. The visitors may have been unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty, after the ball appeared to ricochet off the arm of an unnamed Clapton defender:

“He caught it!” joked Monarchs Manager Paul Atkins, “Everyone went quiet and all the songs stopped straight away, but it’s pretty much how our luck has been at the moment.”

Atkins also acknowledged the slow start that his team made, especially with both teams standing to benefit similarly off of the three points:

“We’re looking for play-offs this year, so we need the points. I knew it was gonna be difficult coming here so we’ve done alright. It’s a game of two halves. [Clapton] were better in the first half and we were better in the second half so, you know, that’s pretty much how it rolled.”

Following last week’s FA Vase defeat, paired with the absence of a number of key players (notably James Briggs and Joel Akuwudike), you would be forgiven for predicting a loss of confidence. On the contrary, the team showed their versatility today, defeating a formidable opponent with confidence riding high on the pitch and in the scaffold, as stated by goalscorer Charlton:

“Last week, we felt that, on the balance of things, we probably should have won the game so confidence was high. We knew what we needed to do today, missing key players but the squad is so good that anyone can come in and [we can] get the three points.”