City maintained their place amongst the leading pack with a hard-earned point at The Camrose, Kezie Ibe’s first half strike against Basingstoke Town being levelled by a Wes Daly penalty just before the interval as Glenn Pennyfather highlighted the “honesty” of his playing squad.

 

The Clarets had given everything during a live FA Cup clash at Macclesfield Town on television only a few days earlier but Chelmsford’s boss was keen for there to be no hangover in their league form. A draw at one of the division’s top eight sides was the result and Glenn was pleased to get back to domestic business.

 

“It would have been easy to come here and lose then use the excuse of the FA Cup game, but we haven’t done that,” he said. “We created chances and had some creative players in the team despite our injuries and having to patch the side up in places. This is a very difficult place to come and we’ve earned ourselves a point.”

 

“I think in the first half they shaded the game but we went ahead through a good finish from Kezie. They were putting us under pressure with a lot of high balls and we could have avoided the penalty but Kenny, and the whole team, recovered very well in the second half. If we’d have taken more care with our chances we could have won and I felt we would have done if the game was five or ten minutes longer.”

 

Two alterations were made to the side which bowed out at Moss Rose in midweek, with wide men Ricky Modeste and Cliff Akurang both missing through injury. That meant a return to the centre of midfield for skipper David Rainford, with Sam Corcoran moving out to one flank, and Greg Morgan’s addition on the other side.

 

There was early concern for the Clarets as Basingstoke threatened custodian Stuart Searle’s goal on a couple of occasions, the second from Shaun McAuley flying just wide. But City took the lead on 11 minutes when a long Justin Miller throw caught out the defence and Max Cornhill was able tee-up Ibe to make it 1-0.

 

The quarter-hour mark brought about three quick-fire opportunities at both ends. Firstly a City free kick saw Adam Tann’s near-post header flash wide while Searle had to stretch backwards and tip a Basingstoke goalbound header over the crossbar. Cornhill was also left bearing down on goal only for Daly to make an important tackle.

 

Both sides had further decent openings, Byron Bubb’s effort being spilt then cleared by the visitors and Ibe laying-off to Cornhill who spooned over the crossbar, but it was Frank Gray’s hosts who netted next. In first half injury time defender Kenny Clark tripped Tim Sills on his way into the area and Daly placed the resulting penalty into the roof of the net to ensure his side entered half time level.

 

Second half shots were limited though both goalkeepers were called into action shortly after the resumption, Ashley Bayes having to intervene and deal with a Greg Morgan strike after some tidy build-up play from the Clarets. Justin Miller was also on defensive duty to block a shot which looked destined for City’s goal.

 

It was Basingstoke who perhaps went closest to grabbing a late winner and Bubb caused an 81st-minute nuisance which Kenny Clark had to deal with before the striker acrobatically hit the rebound off-target. Chelmsford had Searle to thank in stoppage time as he made a brilliant save and the sides eventually settled for a stalemate.

 

Elsewhere in the division there were dropped points for some of the top sides, with pacesetters Woking held to a draw at basement club Thurrock and Welling United losing out to fellow high-fliers Sutton United. Glenn assessed: “They all will at some stage, so we have to keep going and gather more points towards our overall goal. I would have liked all three today but this is still a valuable point.”

 

City:

 

1 Stuart Searle

2 Justin Miller

3 Aiden Palmer

4 Adam Tann

5 Kenny Clark

6 David Rainford (C)

7 Craig Parker

8 Sam Corcoran

9 Kezie Ibe

10 Max Cornhill

11 Greg Morgan

 

12 Cliff Akurang

14 Michael Bakare (On for Ibe, 78)

15 Joe Benjamin (On for Morgan, 68)

16 Tosan Popo

17 Ben Nunn (On for Tann, 55)

 

Basingstoke Town: Ashley Bayes, Nathan Smart, Toby Little, Angus MacDonald, Jay Gasson, Jide Ogunbote, Wes Daly, Shaun McAuley (Delano Sam-Yorke, 84), Tim Sills (David Pratt, 80), Bradley Bubb, Adam Mekki. Unused Substitutes: Matt Warner, Rob Gradwell, Chay Morris.

 

Bookings: City: Rainford (85, persistently infringing the laws of the game). Basingstoke: Bayes (90, delaying the restart of play).

 

Referee: Tim Wood.

 

Assistant Referees: Thomas Blanche and Benjamin James.

 

Attendance: 434.

 

City Man of the Match: Sam Corcoran.