Chelmsford City have strengthened their squad by signing promising young Ipswich Town Reserve defender Steven Moffatt.

Scottish-born Moffatt, 19, a product of the Portman Road academy set-up, went straight into the left-back position for Saturday's tough Dr Martens League Eastern Division match at Rothwell Town.

His signing allows Ross Taylor to move up into midfield as City manager Gary Bellamy aims to see his side bounce back from last week's first league home defeat of the season.

"He is a big and strong youngster who can play football and will be an asset to the side," he said. "We need to strengthen in this position at present and I am confident he will do the job,"

City have released young midfielder Craig Newman to Witham Town, whilst retaining his club registration, in an effort to give him more regular games to help him develop. He will rejoin City during the summer.

Commenting on the Grantham game, Bellamy said: "On the day we were technically beaten by a more streetwise set of experienced players who knew what they were up to.

"They saw that Gary Bennett was put out of the game early on and unfortunately our more experienced players let us down on the day so we failed to compete as well as we should," he said. "At least it gave the players a realistic idea of what life is going to be like next season in the premier division."

Bellamy added: "We are still in the driving seat through being eight points clear, and on paper we now have the easier run in with Grantham and Baldock, our two closest rivals, having to play each other.

"Grantham also have to play other leading contenders so it's up to us to use this defeat, take stock, get our feet on the ground and return to basics by taking each game as it comes and getting on with the business," he said.

Like all of those at the club the manager was appalled by the dreadful behaviour of the trouble-making contingent from Grantham and feels that the league should act over what has become an all too regular occurrence with that club.

"The Grantham club itself should have taken action before now over such behaviour, which we also experienced when playing up there in December.'' he claimed. "In other competitions clubs who failed to act would be docked points."

City have another away match on Tuesday when they take on Tonbridge Angels at Longmead (kick off 7.45pm).

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