FC CLACTON boss Kieron Shelley believes his rejuvenated side have turned a corner.

The Seasiders ran out 4-2 winners against lowly Ely City in a thrilling Thurlow Nunn League premier division contest at the Rush Green Bowl on Saturday.

It came hot on the heels of last week's 2-0 success against Long Melford and it means they are agonisingly close to creeping off the bottom of the table, level on points with Swaffham Town.

“Three or four weeks ago the results weren’t changing, but our performances and attitude were improving,” said Shelley.

“Now we’re getting the results to go with it and other teams will look at us and think ‘we don’t want to go to Clacton’.

“They can see we’re starting to turn people over and they won’t want to be the next ones.

“I know we’re not a bottom-of-the-table squad and I’m sure we’re going to kick on now and start moving up the table.

“We don’t want to go down and we’re doing everything we can to keep this club up and survive.

“I hope we’re going to start playing football the right way in order to do it.”

Michael Brothers got the ball rolling with a composed finish after an exquisite long pass from Louie Newland.

Hat-trick hero Jason Joseph then scored the first of his treble with a downward header from a pinpoint right-wing cross by Harvey Cowler.

Ely pulled one back, pouncing on a short pass in defence, before Joseph restored the two-goal advantage with a spectacular effort from 30 yards.

After speeding past an opponent wide on the left, he spotted the keeper off his line and lifted an audacious effort over him into the net.

Ely netted again, this time from close range, but Joseph eased nerves with a close-range header, following up after the keeper parried Jamie Beecham's shot.

The only disappointment for Clacton was that they stay bottom of the table as fellow strugglers Swaffham won 3-1 at home to Brantham Athletic.

“It was a controlled performance,” added Shelley.

“We weren’t great in the first 20 minutes, but found our rhythm and scored a couple of goals.

“We then conceded a couple of soft, scrappy ones, including gifting them one in the first half through being over-confident – playing the ball around in the wrong area and playing one too many passes.

“But we told the players at half-time not to be too hard on themselves.

“We asked them to keep playing the same way and for each other and that’s what football is all about – the bond between players, both on and off the pitch.

“That’s now starting to show for us.”