On the face of it, it looks like a fairly straightforward triumph for the Tier 3 team, away at the Tier 5 wannabe giant killers. In truth, for the first hour or so, it was rather more even, as a bobbly, hard pitch with some interesting features gave Needham Market a few puzzles to solve.
With seemingly very few home fans in the ground, the two teams kicked off in bright, even warm, sunshine with little active crowd support. It was quickly evident that Needham's preferred style of play, involving balls to feet, wasn't too clever, with erratic bounce and an apparent ridge running along the middle of the pitch from goal to goal.
Clapton were enthusiastic, if a bit erratic, but when some suspect defending let one of their strikers in, it looked for all the world as though they would take the lead. He rounded the keeper, and had a clear sight on goal at close range, but managed to find the defender on the goal line. It should have been one-nil, but even such a scare didn't seem to provoke a meaningful response from the visitors.
Midway through the first half, it became apparent why the crowd was so thin. At the end of the ground, where an alleyway runs against the fencing, a group of maybe fifty or so suddenly bobbed into view, singing and chanting on their team. It was the legendary Clapton Ultras, who are boycotting home matches until the loathed Chairman and purported owner of Clapton FC, Vince McBean, goes away. They were in fine voice, and with much to sing about, as what chances there were tended to fall to the home side. Whilst Needham looked like the better team, had they been behind at half-time, it wouldn't have been unjust.
The second half began in fairly similar fashion, with Needham struggling to string passes together, but the tactics had clearly changed, with the ball spending more time in the air, rather than on the ground. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective, as the Marketmen began to dominate.
66 minutes in, and the breakthrough came, Gareth Heath scoring his first goal since joining the club from arch-rivals Leiston during the summer (they're arch-rivals due to the fact that they always seem to give us a bit of a hiding...). And, to be honest, that was about it as far as suspense goes, as it seemed to me that the Clapton players seemed to know that the game was up.
Needham tightened the screw without ever seeming to be played to their full potential, and goals from Luke Ingram, after some neat play, and Callum Harrison with a fiercely struck effort from twenty yards or so clinched a place in the next round.
I had a train to catch, so couldn't hang around, but I did talk to a few of the Ultras on my way past. They're mostly young, pretty radical, and very committed to their football and the community around them. They're also friendly, unless you're a fascist and/or racist. It's almost a pity that they didn't hang on for a replay, as they might well have proved welcome visitors to Bloomfields.
And so, we await Monday's draw. The Conference North and South teams enter at this stage, but a home draw against FC Romania might be interesting... Come on you Marketmen!
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