Four clear for Felixstowe- and Grays get six!

Felixstowe and Walton United continued their fine form at the top of Pitching In Isthmian North, comfortably seeing off the challenge of Brightlingsea Regent and recording not only another win, but another clean sheet. Last night’s shutout was their third in a row- but more than that, it was their ninth in ten matches. The only player to have scored against the Seasiders in their last nine hundred minutes of League football was Maldon & Tiptree’s Anthony Wordsworth, for all the good it did him. 

Sam Ford was the Felixstowe hero against Regent. He opened the scoring with his fourth goal in the last three matches, this one on twenty seven minutes, and added another shortly after the break. Nineteen minutes from time Zak Brown added a third to finally seal victory, which took the Seasiders four points clear at the top- although, of course, the second place Jammers have two games in hand due to their FA Cup exploits.

Image from Stefan Peck.

Grays Athletic welcomed a Brantham Athletic side who were still searching for their first Isthmian win- and that search goes on after Grays ran riot. Grays had only one defeat from their previous eight, but had seen their progress up the table slowed by the fact that five of those had been draws. Well there was little chance of a draw last night!

The hosts went ahead on seventeen minutes, Harry Hope the scorer, and then hit a purple patch just before and just after the break, with three goals in eleven minutes. Kye Jude got the second on thirty six minutes, Jack Stone added the third from the spot five minutes later, and two minutes into the second half Michael Bareck made it four. Still they weren’t finished, and twenty minutes later Stone added another, with Oscar Shelvey finishing things off with a sixth thirteen minutes from time. 

Grays are up to twelfth, whilst Brantham are eleven points from safety after taking only two points from their opening seventeen matches.

Lowestoft Town got back to winning ways after two defeats, and made it two defeats in a row for Waltham Abbey in the process. It took only two minutes for the Trawler Boys to go ahead at Capershotts, Aaron Bullent with his eighth League goal of the season, but it seemed as if the Abbotts had grabbed a point when Amrit Bansal-McNulty got his seventh of the season with only nine minutes to go. Parity, however, lasted only five minutes, Kyle Haylock stepping up to score a winner for the visitors, who climb to thirteenth.

We’ve two matches tonight, as Gorleston hope to climb to third by defeating Walthamstow, whilst Second bottom Downham Town hope to stop a run of five consecutive defeats as they take on Tilbury.