On a day when a few north Essex sides had setbacks in the Thurlow Nunn League, there were still a couple of eye-catching successes and one in particular where a high-flying side certainly had their wings clipped.

It was a memorable result for one local club, but chief among those who will want to forget the day were Halstead Town.

The Humbugs have had to endure a three-week break in action thanks to the way the fixture list had sorted itself out, but had held on to second spot in the division one south table during their inactivity.

However, their return saw a 2-0 defeat at the Milbank Stadium and a drop to third place as they failed to comeback from a two-goal deficit at half-time.

It meant Halstead lost valuable ground in the title race as leaders Hashtag United went seven points clear at the top after a 5-0 win against Holland FC, who were unable to follow up the 3-0 win they had against May & Baker seven days earlier.

May & Baker had another weekend to forget as it was Little Oakley beating them heavily while keeping a clean sheet themselves this time.

The Acorns had goals from Rory Harman, Brad James, Luke Mayhew and Pete Maina as they won 4-0 at the Memorial Ground and another side putting four goals away to collect three points were the in-form Coggeshall United.

Coggeshall could still have a say in the title race and took advantage of Wivenhoe Town's current situation as they beat the managerless Dragons 4-2 at the GMP Plant Hire Stadium.

Wivenhoe parted company with boss James Meadows in the wake of the previous week's loss at Fire United that extended their losing run to 14 games in the league and the defeat by the Weavers took that to 15.

Coggeshall were 3-0 up inside 20 minutes with goals from Josh Dalziel and Adie Cant and a George Smith penalty.

Although Wivenhoe showed fight in getting it back to 3-2 with strikes from Miguel Nydam and Angus Poole, Coggeshall eased clear at the end as an 83rd minute Andy Fennel strike wrapped up the points.

Elsewhere in division one south, Braintree Town Reserves were beaten 3-1 at Lopes Tavares.

So it is in the premier division where we find the performance of the day.

It wasn't at Brantham Athletic as the Imps were beaten 1-0 at home by Gorleston and instead it was at the Rush Green Bowl where a splendid day for FC Clacton saw the Seasiders beat third-placed Godmanchester Rovers 5-3.

It was an action-packed encounter.

Max Booth was the early hat-trick hero for the hosts as goals on 21 and 26 minutes and a 29th minute penalty gave him his treble and his side a 3-0 half-time lead.

Godmanchester showed why they are in the title race, though, as they pulled it back to 3-2, before Jake Clowsley extended the lead back to two on 69 minutes.

And although Austin Diaper soon narrowed that gap again, the sending off of Rovers' Joe Walker late on and a stoppage-time goal from Adam Hampson saw the Seasiders safely over the line with a result worthy of the display of the day honour.

Meanwhile, in the Essex Senior League, Stanway Rovers had to come from a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 draw at the Hawthorns.