APRIL Fools’ Day.

The day of the year which is traditionally celebrated by spreading hoaxes and by playing practical jokes.

And with football clubs up and down the country attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of their supporters with various spoofs on their websites and social media platforms, myself and Martin (Oswick) decided FC Clacton should be no different.

And so, thanks to Martin’s fertile imagination, we came up with our own spoof.

FC Clacton, in a story made all the sillier by the fact that club patron Douglas Carswell is a firm supporter of the leave campaign, would take to the field for the remainder of the season in a special new kit, sponsored by the British based Pro-EU group ‘YesEU’ (completely fictitious, I hasten to add!).

We were rather proud of ourselves as we broke the news at 8.30 on Friday morning, via the club website and Twitter feeds, and slightly less proud a couple of hours later as it seemed that nobody had taken the bait.

Then a text from club secretary Danny Coyle arrived to inform us that to the contrary, quite a few people had fallen for it … namely a number of members of the first team squad, who had frantically rushed to their nearest sports store to purchase new under clothing to reflect the new colour kit!

Oh dear, boys!

But, as is so often the case, our actions came back to bite us later that evening, as those same players delivered just about their worst performance of the season in losing 3-0 at home to Hadleigh United.

We won’t be doing that again!

Away from the first team last weekend, the under-21s took another big step towards clinching the Essex Olympian League under-21 division title in their inaugural season, with a 6-1 win at Redbridge U21.

Ian Scott’s youngsters are now guaranteed to be crowned as champions if they win their remaining fixture in ten days’ time.

This Saturday sees champions-elect Norwich United visit the Bowl.

It would be great to see you there.

Come on you Seasiders!