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Brayley: Bagged a brace

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Clarets claim fourth place

Chelmsford City claimed fourth place on the Blue Square South table with a comfortable win against Weston-super-Mare on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Steve Robinson, Bertie Brayley (2) and Jon Keeling which helped overcome West Country opposition in Weston-super-Mare.

Despite surrendering their clean sheet to an injury time Ben Wells free-kick, the Clarets returned to winning ways after their first loss the previous weekend, and Head Coach Glenn Pennyfather was ecstatic with the comprehensive result: "We played very well and have been threatening to do that to our opponents for a few games.

"One or two things were tweaked in training and they certainly paid off. Now we're looking forward to going on another run."

Due to a late arrival at Woodspring Stadium thanks to traffic en route to the area, kick-off was put back to ten minutes past three and the only alteration the Management Team made to the previous week's match against Havant & Waterlooville was to introduce Robinson to the centre of defence in place of Andy Duncan.

The visitors made the brighter start and a move involving Bertie Brayley and Ricky Holmes set Ollie Berquez up on the edge of the penalty area, though to no avail.

However, Jeff King's team suffered an early blow when Ian Cousins was forced to leave the field after just 6 minutes, to be replaced at left-back by Spencer Knight. "Ian suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury and could be out for a while," Pennyfather explained.

Yet this didn't prevent Chelmsford taking a 22nd-minute lead. Holmes and Knight combined on the left which resulted in a cross from the latter that was cut out for a corner.

From that flag-kick, Robinson got his head to the delivery and this took a deflection before finding the net.

Berquez later went on to attempt a couple of strikes from long range which didn't test goalkeeper Ryan Northmore, while the home team enjoyed marginally more possession the longer the half wore on without creating sufficient tangible chances.

Moments before the interval, City's Kevin James poked wide in front of goal at the other end as one of a selection of chances missed.

After the break, however, King's visitors put the game almost beyond reach thanks to Brayley on 48 minutes. He picked-up a ball over the top, cut inside from the left and unleashed a rocket into the corner which left Northmore with no chance.

Merely ten minutes later two became three courtesy of Brayley again, this time being hit by the ball on the edge of a Weston defensive wall from a free-kick then expertly tucking the loose ball into the bottom corner.

The unlikely source of the head of Keeling was the provider of goal number four as he got in between a pair of defenders and executed a diving header from six yards which flew into the goal to end the contest twelve minutes from the end.

Matters could then have been made worse towards the climax when Jason Hallett came off the bench to miss a simple chance.

Three minutes into injury time at the end of the game, the Clarets' unblemished defensive record went to pot as Wells converted a consolation from a free-kick for the hosts, though it proved little more than an irritation as City returned eastwards with the points safely secured.

Weston-super-Mare 1-4 Chelmsford City

Referee: Tony Power (Harrow).

Assistant Referees: Daniel Jacecko (Swindon) and Christopher Weggs (Reading).

Attendance: 308.