After a strange 24 hours for the club off the pitch, the First Team did end up playing a game on Tuesday evening against a side playing in green and yellow. Instead of Norwich City it was the green and yellow of Lakenheath who kindly stepped in at the last minute.
The Robins brought into the eighteen man squad trialists George Darling and Tom Williams along with Sam Goodge, Lewis Hook and Dominic Hunt. Josh Sewell and trialist Mason Newman were unavailable while Alex Theobald was rested.
Everyone was looking forward to playing and watching a game at the new treated Unwin playing surface and although it is still work in progress congratulations must go out to all the hard work and effort being put in to get it as best we can.
It was nice to see Sam Goodge start a game for The Robins for the first time since 23rd January when we played Stowmarket in First Division knock-out cup. He worked tirelessly as a lone striker up front and he was the one who had the best two half chances in the opening periods without converting . Ely started to get into their stride and in the 21st minute took the lead when a clever one two between Liam Griffin and James Seymour released Griffin into the box and he calmly laid the ball back to Craig Neal who hit the ball home to the keepers left. Lakenheath did create a couple of half chances as the half went on, but in the 44th minute Ely increased their lead when a contested decision by the referee to give The Robins a corner was taken by Ash Walter and he found the head of Sam Goodge whose header was blocked and then hit home by trialist Tom Williams.
The second half saw a number of changes including the appearance of trialist George Darling and the first appearance for the First Team for reserve team player Player of the Year Dominic Hunt. The second half was slightly disappointing in that Ely struggled to keep hold the ball and although looked dangerous when breaking it was Lakenheath who grew as the game went on. Unfortunately for them they seemed to run out of steam late on and four goals in the last quarter of an hour gave the scoreline as slightly unfair reflection on the game overall.
Captain James Seymour made it four when a good surging run from Joe Peacock into the Lakenheath half found Seymour on the edge of the box.Seymour played it across to the other side for Lewis Hook who cleverly returned the ball back for Seymour to head home.In the 83rd minute it was four when a Joe Peacock shot hit Lewis Hook who then challenged with the keeper and then calmly slotted the ball home when it became loose Three minutes later a through ball from Hook found Luke Mansfield and after evading one challenge was brought down in the box by another desperate lunge from a Lakenheath defender. Mansfield shook himself up and shot past a slightly unlucky goalkeeper with the ball going under his body. The game was literally over when the Lakenheath left back blindly passed the ball back without looking and Joe Peacock calmly chipped the ball over the keepers head with his right foot.
Overall another good run out with a number of players getting minutes in their legs.
The club can announce that after the game it has signed Ollie Brookes from Fulbourn and Tom Williams from Burwell. The club would like to welcome both of you to the club and hope your stay is an enjoyable one.
Finally, a bucket collection was made for Newmarket Town F.C player Shaun Whiter and Soham Town Rangers player Joey Abbs who were recently involved in a traffic accident outside of Newmarket . We raised £290 and this will be carried over to the collection we are going to make out our home game against Cambridge City on Tuesday 26th July.Thank-you for your donations so far

Ely City 6 C.Neal( 21m) T.Williams (44m),J.Seymour (75m) ,L.Hook 83m) L.Mansfield (pen) (86m) , J.Peacock (90m) Lakenheath 0

Line-Up
1.H.Reynolds 2 D.Jeffrey 3 J.Alsop 4 L.Griffin 5 O.Brookes 6 T.Williams 7 M.Simpson 8 A.Walter 9 S.Goodge 10 J.Seymour 11 C.Neal
Subs All Used
G.Darling,S.Saberton,J.Peacock,J.Brannan,D.Hunt,L.Hook,L.Mansfield