Ely City starting line up: 1: Reynolds (GK), 2: Revell, 3: Capel, 4: Crisp, 5: Williams ©, 6: Hunt, 7: Young, 8: Walter, 9: Townshend, 10: Tait, 11: Foster

This was a game very much affected by the heavy wind and rain and City took advantage with a strike just before half time after a well taken drilled effort from Foster found the back of the net.

The hosts began the game well and had two chances inside the first few minutes. They didn’t test Harry Reynolds until a while after that though when a Newmarket attacker had three efforts cleared off the line by both the Ely goalkeeper and Tom Williams.

After sixteen minutes Tricks hooked a shot just over the bar and that (as well as a couple of good driving runs from Luke Young) was as close as Ely came to scoring before the thirty minute mark.

As the half wore on, so did the partnership between Young and Foster upfront for the away side. They started to link well deep into the Newmarket half with good passing between the pair.

This was a game that Ely played on the counter for the most part and Newmarket’s build up play was good without testing Reynolds.

The winning goal came when Dominic Hunt took a long throw into the Newmarket box and when it wasn’t cleared by the Jockeys defence, Foster did superbly well to smash the ball beyond a packed penalty area and beyond the goalkeeper to give the Robins the lead.

Half time: Newmarket Town 0 Ely City 1

Ely defended really well as a unit in the second half to maintain their lead. This was a real team performance in weather conditions that would have proved a test to a lot of sides.
However Ely were on the front foot early on after the break and Young hit an effort just wide just before the hour mark.

The Robins should have doubled their lead on the 76th minute but goal scorer Foster couldn’t quite slot home despite the home goalkeeper coming out to try and collect the ball. Ely’s number 11 had an open goal to slot into but the ball went just over the bar.

Newmarket didnt have any real chances of note in the second half thanks to some superb team defending but the hosts did have the ball in the back of the net with a few minutes of the game remaining but in the build up Reynolds had been fouled so rightfully the goal wasn’t given.

Full time: Newmarket Town 0 Ely City 1

Ely’s next two fixtures are a trip to Norwich United on October 9th and then a home game against Lakenheath on October 12th.