Higher-level Thetford Town defeated Clapton 8-7 on penalties to advance to the third round of the FA Vase after neither side were able to find the net within 90 minutes, writes Obi Lazarus. The 3pm kick off was preceded by a minute’s applause in memory of Clapton Youth Coach Stephen Jenkins, in which a banner was unveiled made by the kids in his honour.

Clapton started the game on the front foot, keeping a low block defensively and getting the ball out wide in search of a final pass. Although the game remained pretty uneventful for the first 20 minutes, the first scoring opportunity came for the home side when Louis Brown released Noah Adejokun down the right hand flank virtually unopposed, before a pass was slotted back to Brown in the box who couldn’t get a shot off. This seemed to be a leitmotif for Clapton in the first half, continually finding ways into Thetford’s final third but unable to pick out a final pass to send the ball goalwards.

At the half-hour mark, Thetford Town came close to opening the scoring when an inswinging corner from the left-hand side produced a glancing header which flew past Clapton goalkeeper Jack Francis. Fortunately, with the reaction time of a diligent cat, Bailey Pryce thumped the ball off the line and out for a throw-in. Aside from two yellow cards (Adejokun and Callum Olpin respectively) and an onslaught of blocked Thetford shots following a scrappy corner, the first half did not see much more action before the whistle blew.

The second half got off to a lively start as both teams seemed to reimagine what was at stake, envisioning an away day to the promised land of Wembley. The first big chance fell Clapton’s way when Adejokun danced through two defenders on the right flank to win a free kick just outside of the penalty box. Fuelled by chants of “Briggs will tear you apart” from the Scaffold, itself revitalised by the opportunity to get a beer during the half-time interval, James Briggs whipped a dangerous ball across the face of goal, although Brown was unable to head it past the Thetford keeper at the back post. It wasn’t long before Brown tried again, intercepting a wayward pass and attempting to catch the keeper out from distance, albeit to no avail. The striker’s memorable moment would come soon after, however, when Brown threw himself spectacularly at an outswinging corner from the right in a daring overhead kick which was blocked before it could touch the netting of the goal, drawing a collective ‘ooooh’ from everyone in attendance.

This was an encouraging passage for Clapton and it seemed like a goal was coming. Minutes later, Fred Taylor was wheeling away in celebration having slotted the ball past Ryan Dickerson, Thetford goalkeeper, after being played through by Julian Austin. Unfortunately, the referee disallowed the goal due to a rather harsh apparent handball in the buildup. News of the ruling took a couple of minutes to reach those under the scaffold, who could not hear the ref’s halting whistle over the raucous celebrations in the stands and were much confused as to why the ball had not been returned to the centre circle to restart the game.

Following a few more half-chances at either end, including a Thetford free-kick which was launched into the wall, the final opportunity came by way of Briggs (again!) who looped in a left-footed cross towards Adejokun, whose header came agonisingly close to dropping beneath the crossbar.

With the two sides unable to be separated in ninety minutes, the game went straight to penalties. Both teams started off well, burying each of their opening three penalties. 3-3. After five penalties-a-piece, the score was still tied at 3-3 following four consecutive penalty saves. Nerves may have been high but both teams kept their cool, each netting their next four sudden death penalties to bring the score to 7-7. After Thetford netted their tenth penalty, goalkeeper Dickerson guessed the right way and got a strong hand to Pryce’s powerful effort to send Thetford through to the third round of the FA vase.

Although it was hard to hear him over the chants of “We’ve got [Dickerson] in our goal”, Thetford manager Matt Morton was quick to point out after the game how formidable Clapton had been both on and off the field of play:

“I’ve played 20 years around this level, and I’ve never seen loud, continuous support like that. Normally, I’m screaming and shouting and you can hear me from one side of the pitch to the other; today I don’t think that the players on the nearest touchline to myself could hear me!”

“Considering they don’t usually play a block, I thought [Clapton] played it fantastically. Normally we are a high chance-creating team [but] I could count on one hand the amount of chances we had.”

It is worth noting that Thetford have scored the most goals of any team in their division, already a whole level above Clapton CFC. The defensive set-up by Clapton was also hailed by Adam Sidky, defender, who seemed to enjoy the defensive workload being shared by the whole team:

“They play good football, they rotate very well, but I think we contained them well as a team. I was just saying to the guys that I feel fresh because most of the work was being done in front of us. We don’t want to be a defensive team every game but sometimes you’ve got to switch up the game plan.”

On speaking about the gravity of playing in the FA Vase, Sidky told me that: “The atmosphere was unbelievable. The chance to play at Wembley in the final is motivation enough. Playing a team who are second or third in the league above, what more can you ask for in a game?”

Clapton Men’s First Team will play at home again next week, Saturday, November 16, hosting Staplehurst Monarchs in the league and looking to get back to winning ways. Meanwhile Clapton Women’s First Team play Sunday, November 10, 2pm vs Bromley.