Glenn Pennyfather claimed City were mightily close to walking away from Wheatsheaf Park with another away victory through skipper David Rainford’s early strike, though a momentary “lapse” enabled Staines Town’s Adam Everitt to level after the break to deny the Clarets their fourth consecutive away victory.

 

The City boss was pleased with his team’s showing against notoriously difficult opposition, elevating them nearer the top of the fledgling Blue Square Bet South table. He said: “We should have got all three points as we were given no problems in free play but we gave away too many dead balls and our one lapse in concentration cost us. You’re not always going to score three or four away from home like we have been so it’s vital that we’re tight defensively throughout the game.”

 

Chelmsford were unchanged apart from the addition of loanee Colchester United goalkeeper Carl Pentney in place of the injured Stuart Searle. And they made one of their trademark perfect starts when Rainford stepped up to take a 3rd-minute free kick from just outside the penalty box and found the back of the net. A further three minutes later the game was almost back level again when the hosts rattled the crossbar then Pentney was forced to save well with his legs.

 

The rest of the half was fairly uneventful apart from a few half-chances, though Glenn continued: “After the first 20 minutes I think we should have been 2-0 up and we would have been if we’d made better decisions in the final third. We’ve been spoilt with the amount of early goals we’ve scored away so far this season and it won’t be the case for much of the time. This is a difficult place to come and a lot of other teams will have difficulties when they come here.”

 

Opportunities were still at a premium after the interval until Cliff Akurang angled a 57th-minute header at goal which Town stopper Louis Wells was forced to divert around the post for a corner. Then it was a flag kick which City succumbed to for the equaliser as the ball was dropped into the danger zone and Everitt buried his free header into the net on 66 minutes.

 

In the final ten minutes the Clarets came within inches of victory when a defender diverted the ball onto the underside of his own crossbar and Joe Benjamin brought a decent save from Wells. Glenn added: “Overall it was a pretty strong team performance but we mustn’t turn off and have to focus on performing well in the next game. We paid the penalty for not quite doing enough tonight by dropping two points so we’ll go out for all three again at Weston-super-Mare.”

 

City:

 

1 Carl Pentney

2 Justin Miller

3 Aiden Palmer

4 Mark Haines

5 Kenny Clark

6 David Rainford (C)

7 Warren Whitely

8 Jermaine Brown

9 Cliff Akurang

10 Max Cornhill

11 Ricky Modeste

 

12 Joe Benjamin (On for Whitely, 72)

14 Sam Corcoran

15 Kezie Ibe (On for Akurang, 84)

16 Greg Morgan (On for Modeste, 79)

17 Ben Nunn

 

Staines Town: Louis Wells, Simon Jackson, Pete Smith, Danny Gordon (C), Richard Orlu, Andre Scarlett, Marc Charles-Smith, Adam Everitt, Richard Butler, Scott Taylor (Mark Nwokeji, 80), David Wheeler (Howard Newton, 56). Unused Substitutes: James Tyrell, Belal Aite-Ouakrim, Shaun Allaway (GK).

 

Bookings: City: Clark (71, unsporting behaviour). Staines: Everitt (71, unsporting behaviour), Newton (71, unsporting behaviour), Jackson (80, foul).

 

Referee: Ian Rathbone (Semilong).

 

Assistant Referees: Robert Partlett (Abingdon) and Sam Purkiss (London).

 

Attendance: 264.

 

City Man of the Match: Kenny Clark.