Wivenhoe player-boss Julian Hazel and new Harwich defender Glen Cowan face early-season suspensions after being sent off in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday night.

The sides' clash at Broad Lane, which Wivenhoe won 2-0, was far from friendly and things turned nasty in the 58th minute when the two clashed.

Hazel, who is the Dragons' joint-boss , was red carded, while Cowan received his second yellow card.

Hazel will now miss at least two games, possibly three, while Cowan is set for a seven-day ban.

Things began to turn unsavoury when Wivenhoe opened the scoring on 13 minutes through a Steve Henson header.

Harwich claimed the ball had been punched in and Cowan earned his first caution for his protests.

The hosts, who were the better of two poor sides, secured victory three minutes from time through substitute Bradley Hipkin's 25-yard strike.

Super striker Simon Parker notched another brace of goals as Heybridge beat Witham 2-0 - but at a price.

The match saw four Swifts players taken off injured, giving manager Robbie Nihill a real headache with the new season just a week and a half away.

Captain Ben Lewis (knee), Mark Cranfield and Dave McKrory (calf) and goalkeeper Kingsley Banks (dislocated finger) all left the field during a competitive game.

A goal in each half sealed the game for the in-form Swifts, who have only been beaten by West Ham's first team during pre-season.

Clacton beat Jewson League rivals Tiptree 1-0 thanks to a goal from Jon Collins.

Despite the win, manager Steve Dowman was not pleased with the performance, saying: "We started well but lost our way when we made a few changes around the half-hour mark.

"We've been working really hard but I wasn't happy with a couple of things - our passing was not up to standard."

Elsewhere Maldon, still looking for their first pre-season win, drew 2-2 with Essex Senior League Concord Rangers, Lee Sonnex and Jamie Gold scoring the goals.

Brightlingsea visited Felixstowe and came away with an excellent 3-1 win - Ian Kenny scored twice while Glenn Craigs was also on target.

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