A crowd of 167 saw David'Smudge'Wilson's testimonial match last night at The Unwin Ground in which Ely just narrowly edge out Cambridge City with a Matty Simpson 2nd half penalty.

The annual pre-season game between the two sides saw a transitional Camb City start the game well in terms of possession and Ely failed to maintain retention of the ball as well as they would have liked. Although the Lillywhites created a couple of half changes without really troubling Robins keeper and former Camb City keeper Harry Reynolds it was in fact an ex-Robin who broke the deadlock.

James Tricks currently on trial with Southern League Premier outfit finished off a good move down the left with a lovely crisp half volley that Reynolds had no chance with. The Camb.City goal in fact seemed to settle Ely down and it was not long before another trialist was on the score sheet. Just like on Friday in the game against Wisbech Ely captain Ash Walter picked out a great run from Mason Newman and his good first touch gave him the opportunity to lob the Camb City keeper to even the game up.

The second half seemed to go as the first with Camb.City having most of the half chances with really troubling Reynolds although he did make one fine save after his clearance was blocked by the advancing forward and the ball dropped kindly dropped to oncoming midfielder, but Reynolds made a good acrobatic save to redeem himself. Ely at this time were really working hard and always looked like they might create something on the break. The winner came in the 80th minute when a Jamie Alsop cross was put into the box and, Camb Cty keeper Enol Ordonnez came to punch, but instead of making contacting with the ball he made contact with Ely winger Craig Neal and the referee correctly pointed to the spot.

Matty Simpson took the responsibility for the spot kick and he calmly slotted home with the keeper rooted to his line. David 'Smudge'Wilson came on the his last nine minutes of football and seemed to enjoy himself and see the game out for his old club.

They always say pre season results do not matter, but Ely do seem to have a belief and confidence about them at the moment that will hopefully be carried into the start of the season